Work Packages
EXPANSE is a five-year European research project that focuses on the urban exposome and involves 20 academic and non-academic partners located in 14 European countries and the USA.
The main aim of EXPANSE is to address one of the most pertinent questions for urban planners, policy makers, and inhabitants in Europe: “How to maximize one’s health in a modern urban environment?” To this end the EXPANSE project has been structured around seven Work Packages (WP’s).
OVERALL STRUCTURE
WP 1 EXTERNAL EXPOSOME
Coordinator: Kees de Hoogh, SWIS TPH, Basel, Switzerland
Our goal is to comprehensively characterise the External Urban Exposome, including the food, lifestyle, social, built, and physico-chemical environments. We will improve methodologies and analytical tools to enable individualised assessments of the External Urban Exposome.
WP 2 INTERNAL EXPOSOME
Coordinator: Annette Peters, Helmholtz Research Centre for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany
Our goal is to comprehensively characterise the Internal Urban Exposome, which includes biological responses to cumulative exposures. We will integrate the wealth of OMICS data within the cohorts, and generate new Internal Exposome data from ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry.
WP3 EXPOSOME-HEALTH
Coordinator: Erik Melén, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Our goal is to decrease the proportion of unexplained Cardio-Metabolic and Pulmonary Disease (CMPD) risk in urban populations and to gain insights into mediating biological mechanisms and causality. To do so we will develop tools to link External and Internal Urban Exposome measures to CMPD.
WP 4 INTERVENTIONS
Coordinator: Cathryn Tonne, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
There is a critical need for innovative methods that can quantify the health impact (positive or negative) of disease prevention strategies. We will develop and evaluate intervention strategies to prevent Cardio-Metaboloc and Pulmonary Disease and promote health by modifying aspects of the Urban Exposome at the population and individual level.
WP 5 METHODS
Coordinator: Marc Chadeau, Imperial College, London, UK
Our goal is to remove methodological bottlenecks hampering the successful exploration of the Urban Exposome and its possible health impact by extending established techniques and developing novel statistical approaches.
WP6 TOOLBOX
Coordinator: Jelle Vlaanderen, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Our goal is to create a long-term sustainable toolbox and infrastructure that can be used to generate knowledge on the Urban Exposome and the translation of this knowledge into actionable information for citizens, public sector policy makers, and private sector companies.
WP 7 EXPOSOME HUB
Coordinator: Tõnu Esko, University of Tartu, Estonia
We aim to closely engage our targeted user-stakeholders in the design and development of the Toolbox as described in Objective 6 and provide access to the Exposome Toolbox