EMBARQ

Great discussions, strong teamwork, and plenty of hygge at the EMBARQ Retreat! 🤝

🌱 Reflecting on inspiring days at the Akademie Fresenius Novel Pesticides 2026 Conference in Düsseldorf!✨

From research to real-world impact: how do we make the science-policy bridge stronger? 💡

🍅 Can microbes help tomato plants cope with drought?

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About the Project

From Natural Variation to Real Risk: Modernizing the Safety Assessment of Microbial Bioinoculants

EMBARQ's primary purpose is to provide a knowledge base and develop innovative tools for quantifying the impact of novel biological agents, facilitating rapid assessment methods for industry and regulators.

EMBARQ addresses the need for improved risk assessment of living microbial bioinoculants used in agriculture and environmental management. We aim to fill fundamental knowledge gaps in microbe-environment and microbe-microbiome interactions to predict the impacts of bioinoculant use on human and environmental health and ecosystem services.

EMBARQ will expand traditional risk assessment steps to cover various risk factors, e.g how horizontal gene transfer may affect pathogenicity, and assess environmental impacts.

Download EMBARQ Flyer

We assess the safety and environmental impact of biological solutions for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity.

Bioinoculant innovation is hindered by regulatory frameworks designed for chemicals rather than living microbes. The lack of clear EU guidance on microbial risk assessment, tracking after field application and
inconsistent national implementation creates uncertainty, high costs and delays the safe deployment of biosolutions.

EMBARQ addresses the need for improved risk assessment of novel biological agents used in agriculture and environmental management. These include live microbes – such as biofertilizers, biopesticides and
bioremediation agents – that promote sustainability by reducing reliance on chemical input.

Our vision is to develop complementary and integrative safety and environmental impact evaluation methods in a OneHealth perspective through an interdisciplinary approach, connecting biotechnology, risk assessment and environmental science.