The NORMAN Association and the European Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC): let’s cooperate! [Commentary]

The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development as a joint research and innovation programme to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment in the EU. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge, and to facilitate the transition to next-generation evidence-based risk assessment, a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The NORMAN Network is an independent, well-established and competent network of more than 80 organisations in the field of emerging substances and has enormous potential to contribute to the implementation of the PARC partnership. NORMAN stands ready to provide expert advice to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and in support of a European Early Warning System to unravel the risks of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes. In this commentary we highlight the tools developed by NORMAN that we consider most relevant to supporting the PARC initiative: (i) joint data space and cutting-edge research tools for risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern; (ii) collaborative European framework to improve data quality and comparability; (iii) advanced data analysis tools for a European early warning system and (iv) support to national and European chemical risk assessment thanks to harnessing, combining and sharing evidence and expertise on CECs. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of the NORMAN network with the financial and policy-related strengths of the PARC initiative, a large step towards the goal of a non-toxic environment can be taken

Comunicação e educação: entre meios e mediações Communication and education: between means and mediations

O texto levanta a hipótese de que a relação conflitiva ainda hoje presente entre educação e comunicação repousa na compreensão que ao longo desse século perpassou a emergência e a análise dos meios de comunicação social. Identificando as posturas fundadoras da comunicação e aquelas que hoje despontam a respeito, o texto faz uma primeira abordagem sugerindo novas pistas para a compreensão da relação entre comunicação e educação, escola e mídia.<br>The text raises the hypothesis that throughout this century the conflictive relationship between education and communication, still present today, lies in understanding has by-passed the emergence and analysis of the means of social communication. Identifying the founding attitudes in communications and those of today, the text attempts a first approach suggesting new clues to understanding the relationship between communication and education, school and media