Last week, members of the Viraqua Project headed down to Bristol’s Watershed for the Inaugural meeting of the Environmental Microbiology and Human Health (EMHH) Programme Integration Group (PIG).
The EMHH Programme incorporates; the VIRAQUA project (tracing enteric viruses through the aquatic environment), the RESERVOIR project, identifying antimicrobial resistance in rivers and a
ssessing the risks associated with specific pollutants and land management practices such as sewage sludge disposal. The RAMBIE and the ENDOTOX projects both focus on bioaerosols. The RAMBIE project is developing advanced tools for the rapid monitoring of Bioaerosols in urban, agricultural and industrial environments whilst ENDOTOX are developing new ways of characterising and quantifying emissions of endotoxin in the air at composting and farm sites modelling emissions and dispersion patterns.
NERC established the concept of the programme integration group in the hope that linking up certain projects would lead to a sharing of ideas and hopefully research innovation in those areas. The conference was well attended by stakeholders, project members and NERC staff and was a good opportunity for networking.