Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience (AU/BIOS)
Aarhus University (AU) is a top 100 university with 38 000 students – out of these, 17 000 are Master's degree students and 1800 are PhD students. AU is a multi-disciplinary university covering the entire research spectrum – basic research, applied research, strategic research and research-based advice to the authorities. As of November 2019, AU was participating in 294 H2020 projects – 33 as coordinator. AU has a very successful track record of managing both individual fellowships and large international projects. Department of Bioscience is a research institution that also provides science-based advice on monitoring techniques and assessments of marine litter and microplastic at both national and international scale. AU project participants are by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and Food assigned as for instance national members in both EU TG-ML, OSPAR ICG-ML, HELCOM EN-Litter and AMAP LMEG expert groups on marine litter and microplastic and are also involved in different national, Nordic and Arctic oriented research and monitoring projects. The AU research group on microplastics has about six years’ experience with microplastic analyses in different environmental compartments. AU are involved in Nordic projects in harmonising analytical techniques and has also participated in intercalibration exercises previously organised under Quasimeme in 2019 and AU is also partner in projects focused on developing and improving analytical methods.
Aarhus University (AU) is task leader on T3.1 Identification of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines to analyse nano-, micro- and macro-plastics in solid samples and T3.1 Recommendations of most appropriate protocols and methods for monitoring programs. AU contributes also to other activities in WP1 WP2, WP3 and WP4.
AU has experience with several analytical methods relevant for monitoring marine litter and microplastic in different compartments. AU participants are also represented as Danish member in national and several international expert groups involved in monitoring and assessments, e.g. OSPAR, HELCOM, AMAP and EU. AU can thereby contribute to strengthening the link between EUROqCHARM and important stakeholders. AU are represented by Jakob Strand (lead), Vitor Hugo da Silva, Zhanna Tairova and Louise Feld.
Contact person at Aarhus University: Jakob Strand