AERU's impact
AERU's work has had an impact which belies the small size of the group. It has not only directly affected on-farm practices around the world, but has also been influential in steering policy both at home and abroad covering agricultural production, the environment and the food chain as a whole. Some examples of
our impact are outlined below:
- 2025-2026: Development of a pesticide risk indicator for the Convention on Biological Diversity. AERU are contributing to an expert group, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), to help develop a methodology for Headline indicator 7.2 under the monitoring framework of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF was agreed at COP 16, and work is ongoing by the expert group to refine the methodology for indicator 7.2. See Development of pesticide load indicators and Pesticide, biopesticide and veterinary substances databases.
- 2024-2025: Evaluation of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (NEC Directive). AERU have been involved in an official evaluation of the EU’s NEC Directive. The overall objective is to provide evidence on whether the Directive is meeting its objectives and is still fit for purpose, by assessing its effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value. It is also intended that the evaluation explores the potential for simplification and savings in regulatory costs and informs any future decision on the potential revision of the Directive. See Service request supporting the evaluation of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (NEC Directive).
- 2021: Work undertaken by AERU in 2017 for EFSA ('Review of published data on exposure to pesticides for residents and bystanders') and a peer reviewed paper published at a similar time (Lewis, K. & Tzilivakis, J., 2017 - DOI) are used as evidence in EFSA’s recent public consultation document 'Guidance on the assessment of exposure of operators, workers, residents and bystanders in risk assessment for plant protection products' which seeks to update existing guidance related to exposure risk assessments.
- 2020-2025: AERU's work with FERA for Defra developing a Pesticide Load Indicator (PLI) for the UK. This work combines data from the PPDB with usage data taken from the Pesticide Usage Surveys undertaken by Fera Science. The PLI is being used to support a national target to reduce pesticide load by at least 10% by 2030, using 2018 as a baseline year (as outlined in the UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025). See Development of pesticide load indicators and Pesticide, biopesticide and veterinary substances databases.
- 2020-2022: Evaluation of the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). AERU have been involved in an official evaluation of the EU’s Nitrates Directive. This will allow the Commission to make an evidence-based assessment of whether the Directive remains fit for purpose and is achieving its objectives. See Service request supporting the evaluation of the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) and analysis of the answers to the public consultation on the Integrated Nutrient Management Action Plan.
- 2006-Ongoing: A part of the pesticide and other chemical data collated by AERU has been made publicly available online in the form of the PPDB (Pesticide Properties DataBase), BPDB (Bio-Pesticides DataBase) and VSDB (Veterinary Substances DataBase). These are accessed from all over the world (they regularly get over 14,000 visits per day) and extensively cited in literature as the main source of data driving the risk assessments reported. See Pesticide, biopesticide and veterinary substances databases.
- 2019-2020: AERU's work on collating the measures implemented under the Nitrates Directive are being used to support the development of future policies and measures to reduce nitrate pollution. See Providing support in relation to the identification of approaches and measures in action programmes under Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC).
- 2006-2020: AERU have been involved in assessing the impact on GHG emissions of different options under the UK's Countryside Stewardship scheme. This work was first undertaken in 2006 and has been extended and repeated as the scheme and its options have evolved over the years. The work undertaken by AERU has contributed towards reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration by helping scheme administrators to encourage the adoption by farmers and land managers of options that reduce net emissions. See Countryside stewardship GHG emissions.
- 2012-2021: AERU have undertaken several projects for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in which they have collated the latest evidence on chemicals is food and livestock feed. The knowledge synthesised by AERU has been used by EFSA to support their regulatory and evaluation processes that are used to guide European policy. See Chemicals in food and feed.
- 1994-2017: AERU pioneered the concept of environmental management systems within the agriculture and land use sector, with many of the management practices now common place on farms today. This included the development of tools such as the award winning EMA software application, which had 8000 users over 10 years and led to many spin-off tools and services, such as the ADLib which became a key knowledge transfer service. See Environmental Management for Agriculture; and ADLib (Agricultural Document Library)
Also see news articles.
For further information please contact the AERU team.
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