Surveillance of Emerging Pathogens and Antibiotic Resistances in Aquatic Ecosystems – SARA

Overall, our proposal SARA was ranked in Group A. There were only a few comments from the reviewers. One comment was: "Given the high societal relevance of the proposed research, a more effective way of dissemination of project results to society at large is appropriate."
In order to improve the visibility and comprehensibility of the dissemination activities within this research project, a work package entitled "training and dissemination" (WP 9) was integrated into the work plan. Therefore, further information on the dissemination can be found in WP 9, but also in the section "Exploitation and dissemination". Dissemination is addressed to both the scientific community and the end-user community. Therefore, it takes place through a variety of channels: Advisory Board, project webpage and brochure, webinars, leaflets and press releases, publications in scientific journals, contributions to international conferences, and presentations at local, regional and national venues. As a further element for dissemination, a Stakeholder Forum will be established. The objective of establishing the Stakeholder Forum is to ensure that key players within the target organisations are aware of the results, its conclusions, and the implications for their monitoring programmes, risk assessment, and policy areas. The members of the Stakeholder Forum represent international health and environmental organisations, European associations of water business companies, European and African waterworks and authorities.
Corresponding letters of intent from these stakeholders can be found in the additional information.
A second comment referred to the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in water: "Ultimately risk assessment will be related to risks of exposure and the consortium have plentiful expertise here but it will be very helpful to have infectivity assays for Sars." This comment has been taken into account when preparing the tasks of WP 3. In addition to the establishment of alternative, molecular approaches to estimate viral infectivity, selected samples will be examined for the presence of infectious viruses using cell culture techniques. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 biomarkers will be analysed not only in wastewater, but also in surface water. In this additional task, analysis by PCR and – for selected samples – by infectivity assays are proposed.