Business Fields Applied Ecology

With its Applied Ecology division located at Schmallenberg the Fraunhofer IME is the Fraunhofer Institute explicitly dedicated to ecological issues and thematically routed in agricultural production.

The overall aim of the division is to determine, assess and finally minimize the risk of synthetic and natural substances for ecosystems, and for humans via contamination of food, feed and consumer products.

Our activities focus on the characterization and assessment of the environmental friendliness of substances and products, such as plant protection products, biocides, human and veterinary medicinal products, industrial chemicals (REACH) and, e.g., nanomaterials. Based on our chemical-analytical competence, our activities also include project work aiming to ensure food safety and quality.

We carry out a large part of our contract research projects for clients from industry and medium sized enterprises. With projects performed for governmental agencies, consultancy services and expert memberships in regulatory boards the institute also takes considerable influence on environmental policy.

The research, development and service activities of the Applied Ecology Division in Schmallenberg are pooled in four business areas address clients from manufacturers of plant protection products, the chemical industry (including manufacturers of biocides and pharmaceutical products), food and feed manufacturing and processing industries, and governmental agencies.

The individual projects are carried out in interdisciplinary cooperation of our specialists from the different departments structured according to our core competencies.

Here you will find information about the Fraunhofer Institute in Schmallenberg.

As of March 1^st, 2024, Prof. Dr Christoph Schäfers has been appointed to the management of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME and will now lead the institute with its four locations together with Prof. Dr Stefan Schillberg.

Christoph Schäfers knows Fraunhofer IME in Schmallenberg like the back of his hand. The qualified biologist and habilitated ecotoxicologist has been loyal to the Fraunhofer Institute for 30 years and has since promoted the further development of the Applied Ecology division as a European leader in substance-related environmental risk assessment and international guideline development. He joined the former Fraunhofer Institute IUCT in Schmallenberg as a scientist in 1994. He shaped the institute with his technical expertise as a laboratory and department head in ecotoxicology as well as leading Fraunhofer IME operationally and strategically through the Fraunhofer landscape as head of the Applied Ecology division since 2009, and also as acting institute director from 2017 to 2022. During this time, the turnover of contract research and the number of employees more than doubled, which justified a major expansion of the property on the Aberg in Schmallenberg. The Fraunhofer Institute is delighted to have an experienced and committed institute director in Prof. Schäfers, who is also highly appreciated by employees for his collegial management style.

The SETAC Europe 34th Annual Meeting is held in Seville, Spain from 5 - 9 May 2024 and hosts scientists from Europe and overseas.

Chemists and biologists of the Fraunhofer IME participate in the Setac meeting with numerous poster and platform presentations, where they present their current research results.

These contributions can be found on this website.

A HESI workshop on “Alternatives to Chronic Fish Toxicity Testing” was held in Paris, France on October 25-26 2023, attended by 35 multi-sector scientists from 12 different countries.  The workshop was aimed at developing a strategy to guide alternative approaches for the assessment of chronic toxicity to fish, with a focus on how new science and approaches can be effectively used to improve our ability to protect the environment from the potential chronic impacts of chemicals. From Fraunhofer IME in Schmallenberg, Dr. Matthias Teigeler and Dr. Sebastian Eilebrecht took part in the workshop.

The workshop key messages and Information HESI-Workshop

We present an insight into new assessment procedures and test methods that are required due to a changed perception of risks:

• When water fleas perceive fish: Fish kairomones initiate a protective reaction in the water flea Daphnia magna
• WildOMICs: Unravelling the biological potential of the German Environmental Specimen
• Leachability as a Measure for Substance Mobility in the classification as PMT/vPvM
• Portrait: our long-time colleague Uwe Boshof.

We hope you enjoy reading: Newsletter NOV23

The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) had commissioned the two Fraunhofer Institutes IME and ITEM as well as Ramboll Deutschland GmbH to conduct a survey to review the OECD test guidelines. With the help of international expert groups, test guidelines were identified that currently do not correspond to the current state of science and technology. Only the OECD TGs used to assess environmental impacts were considered. After completing the surveys, the results were discussed in three thematic workshops. Recommendations for the revision of the OECD TGs were developed and prioritized, which were finally presented to the members of the Working Party of National Coordinators for the OECD Test Guidelines Program (WNT). Contact Fraunhofer IME: Prof. Dr. Christian Schlechtriem.

Read the report

The SETAC Europe 33rd Annual Meeting is held in Dublin, Ireland from 30 April - 4 May 2023 and hosts scientists from Europe and overseas. Biologists and chemists from Fraunhofer IME are contributing to the meeting with several presentations and posters presenting their scientific network research.

Please find here selected posters and presentrations.

Read the press release of the project consortium on the successful conclusion

The iMulch Leitmarkt.NRW project was successfully completed with the participation of the Fraunhofer IME in Schmallenberg. In the study, Dr Dieter Hennecke and his team investigated the fate of microplastics from various agricultural mulch films in arable soils.

PRESS RELEASE

We are pleased to publish our Newsletter November 2022. We present the following current research projects - focused on molecular analytical methods - from Fraunhofer IME in Schmallenberg:

• TrendDNA: a time travel into Biodiversity
• Toxicogenomic method to monitor adverse effects in water samples from wastewater treatment plants
• Understanding soil microbiomes: where are we? Identification of missing test systems and endpoints
• Portrait: Dr. Bernd Göckener

NEWSLETTER

Fraunhofer IME is represented at this year's world's leading trade fair for the process industry "ACHEMA" in Frankfurt. Together with the partner institutes of the Fraunhofer Alliance for the Lead Market Chemistry, six scientists will present our topics around "Regulatory Research - Testing and environmental risk assessment of chemicals, mixtures (e.g. UVCB), products and polymer". We are happy to provide interested visitors and business partners with a free one-day ticket.

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The SETAC Europe 32st Annual Meeting "Towards a reduced pollution society" is held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 15th - 19th May 2022 and hosts scientists from Europe and overseas. Biologists and chemists from Fraunhofer IME are contributing to the meeting with several presentations and posters presenting their scientific network research.

Please find here selected presentrations.

An online survey had been conducted in the course of May - July 2021 to collect potential update needs and suggestions. The German Environment Agency contracted Fraunhofer ITEM, Fraunhofer IME and Ramboll for the survey. The joint efforts of all of you led to a total number of over 500 individual suggestions. We would like to express our sincerest thanks to you for this impressive feedback. In order to work towards a prioritization of the update needs, we would like to share the reported suggestions with you asking you for a pre-evaluation of the general significance of an update need.

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The Fraunhofer Institutes ITEM and IME and Ramboll were commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency to develop a survey to test the OECD Test Guidelines. OECD Test Guidelines display an important tool to evaluate the impacts of chemicals on the environment.

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The SETAC Europe 31st Annual Meeting “We're presenting!” is held as a virtual conference from 3rd - 6th May 2021 and hosts scientists from Europe and overseas. Biologists and chemists from Fraunhofer IME are contributing to the meeting with several presentations and posters presenting their scientific network research.

Please find here selected presentrations.

This year's NanoTox will take place in virtual format from 20 to 22 April 2021. Scientists from the Fraunhofer IME are also involved in the international expert conference on nanotechnology and its risk assessment for humans and the environment.

You will find further information on NanoTox 2021 under the events.

In a project funded by the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and carried out by Fraunhofer IME, an advanced concept is applied to investigate the accumulation of substances in an exemplary freshwater food web.
The general aim is to support the regulatory risk assessment of bioaccumulating chemicals. For this purpose, organisms were sampled from different trophic levels of Lake Templin, a part of the Havel River near Berlin.

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