Brixham Environmental Laboratory is proud of its history and heritage when it comes to research, innovation and outreach. With over £1.5M of funding, our research and development program covers the broad disciplines of Ecotoxicology, Environmental Fate and Partitioning, Environmental Risk Assessment, Green Chemistry and Clean technologies. Our research team seeks to better understand the issues arising from society’s use of chemicals and their environmental effect. Our aim is to improve scientific validity and provide pragmatic approaches and solutions that directly benefit our clients and collaborators worldwide.
Solution driven, we work at the forefront of environmental research often acting as a central hub on cross disciplinary collaborations with a range of research institutes, funding bodies, industrial and academic partners, ensuring realism and a pragmatic application of science.
CASE supported funding from NERC, CEFIC, BBSRC, EPSRC, and broader European programs such as ERAPharm, as well as industrial collaborations within the pharmaceutical and broader chemical industries have enabled a prolific contribution to the scientific community.
Academic collaborations include those with Exeter, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Plymouth, Cambridge, Manchester, Trent (Canada), Cardiff, Texas and Brunel Universities and many more, with >50 studentships in the last 10 years.
BEL’s publications list represents just one of the areas where we are advancing the science.
Our research teams regularly participate and contribute to international conferences, workshops and events such as SETAC, SEB, SOT, The American Fisheries Congress, UK Mutagenesis Society, BIAZA, UFAW, LASA, and FRAME meetings.
Our foresight team not only ensures that we are well informed of potential changes in the industry, it also helps to drive improvements at the legislative and guideline level, enabling us to better serve our clients. The key aim is to improve the scientific basis of environmental risk assessment, decreasing uncertainty while balancing science and pragmatism at each stage in a chemicals pathway through the environment.
Specific areas of interest include:
- The assessment of Persistent Bio-accumulative and Toxic (PBT) compounds.
- Environmental risk assessment of general chemicals e.g. REACh, CEFIC and long range research initiatives on Pharmaceuticals and Biocides
- Removal of substances in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)
- Mode of action impact (MOA) on wildlife, including endocrine disruption in fish e.g. Endocrine Modulation Steering Group projects forming the basis of OECD guidelines.
- Environmental enrichment and fish welfare
If you would like to discuss how our research and foresight work might help you as a client or if you would like to collaborate with us on a piece of research, please contact us.
