The SCRC is fulfilling its role through organizing capacity-building, training and awareness-raising events. In the biennium 2021-22 there have been more than 30 events organised. Their full list is available here. Below, you can find detailed information on the most important ones.

17th RECETOX Summer School 2021 (21 - 25 June 2021)

17 years of tradition is the RECETOX Summer School, which brings a week-long programme of lectures, workshops and thematic events. The 17th cycle focused on environmental and social epidemiology. Among the most prominent speakers featured were Sir Michael Marmot (University College London), Gary Miller (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health), Sofie Norager (European Commission), Ake Bergman (Stockholm University) and Irina Zastenskaya (WHO). The summer school was held online on 21-25 June 2021 and there were 227 registered participants from 46 countries worldwide and over 20 speakers contributed to this event. Staff from SCRC Czech Republic spoke about broader chemicals management and linkages between pollution and health and available policies globally and at the EU level - including MEAs (Stockholm Convention), modeling, Global Monitoring Plan and EU Green Deal and its strategies and legislative tools.

Side-event at COP10 (July 2021)

On 28 July 2021, COP-10 hosted a side event "Tracing POPs in the Environment: Strategic Partnership, Knowledge management and Capacity building at the Global Scale".

SCRC CZ provided 5 of its expert staff (Lisa Melymuk, Jiří Kalina, Branislav Vrana, Richard Hůlek and Kateřina Šebková) and collaborated with Environment Canada to deliver information on POPs identification, levels and trends. All speakers highlighted the benefits of working with scientists to track POPs in air and water. There were 110 participants and as a follow up of the side event at least one participant expressed a wish to become part of the water monitoring network supported by SCRC CZ.

Presentations are available here.

Study visit for Moldova (May 2022)

Study tour of the Moldovan delegation to the Czech Republic was organized on 9-12 May 2022 in Prague, Czech Republic. 5 representatives of the Moldovan MoE, the Environment Agency and the project team from GEF project 10354 (NIP update) participated in consultations in Prague on POPs management, POPs removal and compliance requirements in the Stockholm Convention legislation and EU measures.

5 experts from Moldova participated in the study visit in Prague. They had consultations with experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Environment to gain insights into the practical issues that regulatory authorities are dealing with. In addition, a visit to the municipal incinerator in Prague was organized as well as two consultations - on circular economy and minimizing waste streams with CYRKL and on experience with remediation of POPs contaminated sites with Dekonta company. The Moldovan experts have evaluated the study visit very positively, in particular waste management options including the incinerator and discussion to minimizing waste approaches and consultation on new law on waste.

CEE Regional Meeting (May 2022)

A three day regional meeting was organized and conducted for 40 participants in NH Prague City hotel, Prague, Czech Republic, from 9 to 11 May 2022. The meeting allowed the 20 participating countries to be effectively prepared for the 2022 face-to-face segment of the meetings of the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions. In particular, the regional preparatory meeting provided participants with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the organization of work of the 2022 face-to-face segment of the meetings of the conferences of the Parties. They were also able to discuss and exchange information on the substantive issues of the agendas of the meetings of the conferences of the Parties and undertake regional consultations in preparations for the meetings. The regional preparatory meeting delivered an opportunity to familiarize the participants with information on other matters of relevance in the chemical and waste cluster on the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), through briefings provided by the two Secretariats who connected online.

Delegations considered all available meeting documents, new or updated guidance documents for making inventories, manage unintentional releases or POPs and other hazardous wastes, and some enforcement provisions for new POPs were vividly discussed in the break-out groups. Countries have also exchanged views in break out groups on necessary support from customs, waste management facilities and national arrangements and legislation. The region reached a preliminary agreement on nominations to expert bodies and bureau that will need to be confirmed in the joint BRS meeting in Geneva.

The BRS meeting was held back-to-back with the 7th regional meeting of the Strategic Approach on International Chemicals Management, taking place at the same venue in Prague on 12 and 13 May 2022. There were 14 countries participating in person and 3 online and they prepared for IP4 meeting in Bucharest (29 August-2 September 2022). The SAICM consultation in Prague allowed for the exchange of regional expertise and information, strategic discussions and solution to politically sensitive issues of the representation in the region.

Outcome of the activity is a well organized venue and smoothly run meeting with all necessary equipment and interpretation. Participants present in the meeting as well as both BRS and SAICM secretariats have expressed their satisfaction with the meeting organization, conduct and outcomes and also appreciated services provided be it equipment of the venue, technical facilities including screens, wi-fi and interpretation as well as catering. All activities planned to be implemented were completed.

Side-event at COP10 (Geneva, May 2022)

SCRC-CZ in cooperation with experts from Kenya, Germany and Spain organized a lunchtime side event on the first day of the Conference on 6 June 2022 called "Trends in POP levels globally and how could they contribute to solving the triple planetary crisis?"

The programme of the side-event covered multiple aspects of the main topic and consisted of the following presentations.

1. Opening and Introduction (Abiola Olanipekun, BRS Secretariat and Kateřina Šebková, SCRC Czech Republic)
2. Trends help us to understand risks from POPs (Kateřina Šebková)
3. UNEP/WHO Human milk survey on POPs - highlights over last 20 years (Rainer Malisch, CVUA)
4. Collaborative use of POPs data and trends by other bodies and clusters (Ramon Guardans, Ministry of Environment, Spain)
5. Official launch of the global visualizations - GMP DWH online (BRS secretariat and SCRC Czech Republic)
6. Questions from the audience
7. Wrap up (Kateřina Šebková, SCRC Czech Republic)

The (live) presentation of the GMPDWH visualizations was a great success and generated discussion. There were 80 delegates present in the room of the side event. The event was recorded and the presentations are also available on the website.

Based on this side event, the Minamata Convention Secretariat asked to meet with SCRC CZ in the margins of the joint COPs and expressed interest in having a similar data browser/platform for their (mercury) global data. The SCRC-CZ confirmed a previous proposal made to the Minamata Convention in 2019 when SCRC-CZ offered to create a similar data viewer for mercury free of charge.

PCB Training of experts from Montenegro (September 2022)

PCB Training and Study visity for laboratory experts from Monetenegro was organized on 19-23 September 2022 at RECETOX premises as joint collaboration of SCRC Czech Republic and RECETOX Research infrastructure, namely the Trace Analytical Laboratories. It provided support to UNDP office in Montenegro responsible for implementation of the GEF funded project “Comprehensive Environmentally Sound Management of PCBs in Montenegro”.

A total of 10 participants from 5 different institutions in Montenegro and one UNDP Montenegro staff received 5 day intensive training. The topics of the training school included environmental chemistry, Natioal implementation plan, science to policy, sampling techniques, analytical instruments and managing and processing environmental data. The programme of the training was a balanced set of lectures, hands on, lab tour, workshop and work in lab. The training also involved validated (accredited) analytical methods, QA/QC standarsd, preparation and analsyes of samples and traiing in use of laboratory equipment and relevant standard operating procedures when processing PCB samples. The participants received 20 hours of training from RECETOX in-house experts (10 experts). thraining school received excellent revies based on feedback questionnaires completed by participants who acknowledged high standards, practicality fo the course and related activities.