Realizing the European Network in Biodosimetry

Realizing the European Network of Biodosimetry (RENEB) is a project that has the aim to establish sustainable network in biodosimetry in Europe. Such a network significantly improves dose assessment capacity. Existing biodosimetry laboratories in Europe have limited capacities, and not all countries have established such laboratories. For example, there is no operative biodosimetry laboratory in Nordic Countries. RENEB gathered 23 organisations, representing experienced laboratories and organisations from 16 European countries. NRPA has been responsible for the work package that deals with both the dissemination of information of the project and contacts with international organisations. Interactions with international organisations has had an aim to facilitate establishing of sustainable network of European biodosimetry laboratories that can continue to operate after the EU RENEB project is completed. NRPA has also been involved in activities towards establishing a legal structure of the future network that should serve radiological emergency response - the work leaded by the project coordinator German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS). Step-by-step approach was taken. First step was developing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between RENEB project organisations. As for the end of year 2015, 25 organisations from 16 EU countries, both RENEB members and laboratories that will join the network in the future, signed the MOU. RENEB consortium had also worked for involvement in research activities in Europe. One of the actions was to develop Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for RENEB. Other actions had been to make the links to European Radiation Protection Research Platforms and future research infrastructures in the emerging radiation research program. NRPA had been involved both in development of MoU and SRA, and A. Jaworska had been member of the Executive Board of RENEB. Dissemination activities: NRPA developed and administered RENEB web page: www.reneb.eu that was open on internet by month 4th of the project. The web page consists of the open and the consortium part. From January 2014 the consortium started to use independent internal platform of RENEB. developed by the French partner Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) in collaboration with NRPA and BFS. The open web page had been updated after RENEB related events, as needed, during the whole project. The RENEB external web page has a link to internal consortium communication platform. NRPA published three bulletins of the project, as it was planned. Bulletins are published electronically on the RENEB webpage, and as papier copies - distributed to the relevant stakeholders nationally and internationally. RENEB published up to now eight peer-review papers; NRPA participants A. Jaworska and F. Ugletveit are co-authors of three of them. They were more than 30 oral presentations of RENEB. NRPA participants contributed to 12 of them. On several radiation research conferences, in the last two years, special RENEB project sessions took place. RENEB project is invited to publish complete special issue in leading radiation research journal: International Journal of Radiation Protection in 2017, and as many as 17 papers are underway. Contacts with international organisations: F. Ugletveit had a continual contacts with EU and UN relevant organisations (among others IAEA Incident Emergency Center), during the whole project time, in order to promote RENEB project, and to survey the international expectations to the emerging RENEB network. NRPA had taken part in the meetings and work of RENEB group dealing with establishing international structure, and had provided input from the perspective of international organisations and international assistance. There were three such meetings. Muenchen 2012, Lisboa 2013, and Warsaw 2014. NRPA had prepared a list of competent authorities responsible for emergency response or response to overexposures and their contact points for further discussions with them on participation and support for maintaining the sustainability of RENEB beyond 2015. RENEB invited representatives from above mentioned authorities, together with representatives of relevant international organisations, to the Demonstrations event, held in EU Commission premises in Brussel in November 2015. The event started with the presentations of the role of biodosimetry in radiological emergency response in Europe, and presentations of RENEB results. Two feedback sessions, one for emergency preparedness and one for research activities, followed the presentations. Materials from the meeting can be find on the RENEB webpage under News. At the end of the project, A.M. Frovig with other co-authors from NRPA and BfS, wrote the RENEB report «Summary report on established international contacts». The report gives description of each contacted organisation and addresses interactions between the organisation and RENEB.

Biodosimetry is an important tool in the management of radiation accidents. Creating a network in biological dosimetry that involves a large number of experienced laboratories throughout the European Union (EU) will significantly improve the accident res ponse capabilities in case of a large-scale radiological emergency. A well organised cooperative action involving EU laboratories will offer the only chance for a fast and trustworthy dose assessment urgently needed in an emergency situation. In this rega rd the European Commission supports the establishment of an European network in biological dosimetry (RENEB) The goal of RENEB is to establish a sustainable European network mainly based on biological dosimetry laboratories and experts involving 23 organi sations from 16 countries, identified by the EURATOM 7th framework TENEB survey. Such network will guarantee the highest efficiency in the processing of biological samples for fast, reliable results implemented in the EU emergency management. The work in the project is divided into 5 work packages (WP). Each of them takes on board one of the specific objectives of RENEB. In order to ensure that the operational network is successfully created, a good communication between WPs is the prerequisite. One of th e challenges of the project is to develop a well organised transnational infrastructure and ensure the long term funding strategy for it. It is also envisaged that the project prepares an agenda for transforming RENEB into legal organisation. For ensuring the successful performance of the network a strong interactions of RENEB with national authorities and international organisations are required. NRPA leads WP5 that deals with dissemination of the project concept and its results, and focus on interaction s with relevant national and international organisations to facilitate the creation of the network, that is the specific task of the WP4. NRPA is involved in WP4 and is a member of Executive board of the project