Symposium: “Humanity and the Environment: Moving Exposome Research from Information to Action”

Researchers and ethicists from institutions in Europe, the USA, and other countries will convene at the final symposium of the Human Exposome Assessment Platform (HEAP) project, hosted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in person and online on Monday 27 May and Tuesday 28 May 2024 from 09:00 to 17:00 CEST.

Open to all and free to attend, this event offers a panorama of exposome research in 2024 through a wide-ranging programme of 17 presentations. The exposome describes the environmental exposures that an individual encounters throughout their life, and how these exposures affect their biology and health.

The symposium will open with a keynote presentation from Professor Jana Klánová, the coordinator of EIRENE (the dedicated pan-European Union Environmental Exposure Assessment Research Infrastructure). On the first day, HEAP researchers will demonstrate how exposome data from wearable devices, consumer receipts, cohort studies, and biological samples can be harnessed for scientific insights. The presentations will conclude with a plenary discussion on the impact and potential of collaborative exposome research.

On the second day, the focus will move to ethics and law, with three distinct sessions: “Exposome research and public health ethics”, “Governance of research projects”, and “Future enablers of exposome research”. The presentations will cover ethical, legal, and governance issues in exposome research, including the impact of the European Health Data Space, health equity, open science and cross-border research, and how to engage effectively with participants in exposome research projects.

The symposium will conclude with an international perspective, covering biobanking and the new International Human Exposome Network (IHEN).

IARC is one of the partner institutions delivering the HEAP project, which is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme, and leads the Work Package on Education and Dissemination.

Online registration is open until 24 May, and in-person registration is open until 10 May.

Register to attend the HEAP symposium on “Humanity and the Environment: Moving Exposome Research from Information to Action”

Download the programme of the symposium