Guidelines & Recommendations, Policy Brief, Report

Guidance for future application of the precautionary principle

After having identified the needs of stakeholders for guidelines and tools to support the future application of the precautionary principle in a co-creative process, the RECIPES team has moved to the next step.
Scientific Publication

Academic journal articles on sub-results of the RECIPES project

During the RECIPES project time, RECIPES partners have written on sub-results of the project. Below are the publications listed that refer to the RECIPES research.

Policy Brief, Report

RECIPES' co-creative process and needs assessment results

From May 2020 to January 2021, the RECIPES team has engaged in a co-creative process to identify needs and ideas for guidelines and tools to support the future application of the precautionary principle.
Scientific Publication

Insect decline, an emerging global environmental risk

Over the past decades, evidence has mounted that the Earth’s entomofauna is in an ongoing state of collapse. Globally, insects make up three quarters of animal and plant species.

Scientific Publication

The pollinator crisis and the role of entomologists: editorial

Pollinator decline, and more broadly insect decline, has become a pressing societal challenge. Jeroen P. van der Sluijs, from the RECIPES Consortium, together with Stéphane Foucart and Jérôme Casas just published the editorial in the Insect Science journal: Halting the pollinator crisis requires entomologists to step up and assume their societal responsibilities.
Scientific Publication

The Blaise case: The precautionary principle and its role in judicial review

The approval renewal of glyphosate as an active substance for pesticides in the EU has also kept the Court of Justice occupied.

Scientific Publication

Precaution and Innovation in the Context of Wastewater Regulation

This month, Fritz-Julius Grafe and Harald A. Mieg, who conducted the case study on "Financial risks in water infrastructure planning", have published the article “Precaution and Innovation in the Context of Wastewater Regulation: An Examination of Financial Innovation under UWWTD Disputes in London and Milan”, on the Sustainability journal.
Scientific Publication

Pollinator conservation requires a stronger and broader application of the precautionary principle

Pollinator decline, and more broadly global insect decline, is increasingly recognised as an emerging global environmental risk urgently requiring an internationally coordinated and integrated policy response.
Case Study, Report

Analysis of the case studies

To fully understand the complexities and the controversies around the application of the precautionary principle, the RECIPES project conducted nine case studies.

Case Study

Case Study 5: Nanotechnologies

As an emerging technology and an important group within the so-called advanced materials, nanotechnologies are characterized by manifold areas of application and high uncertainty.
Case Study

Case Study 7: Financial risks in water infrastructure planning

The case study on "Financial risks in water infrastructure planning" aims to understand the complexities and controversies around the application of the precautionary principle in the context of urban waste water infrastructure provision.
Case Study

Case Study 3: Endocrine Disruptors

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are at the centre stage of a scientific and regulatory controversy. Chemicals shown to have endocrine disrupting effects have mostly been man-made.
Case Study, Video

Case Study 2: Genetically Modified organisms (GMOs)

Genetically modified organisms (GMO) are the product of advanced biotechnology and are non-naturally occurring plants, animals and microorganisms whose genomes have been altered intentionally and artificially.
Case Study, Video

Case Study 4: Neonicotinoid insecticides

In Europe, hundreds of different pesticides are allowed in farming to control fungi (fungicides), weeds (herbicides) and plague insects (insecticides) that may harm the crop. Among them are Neonicotinoid insecticides (in short: neonics) that, due to the risk they pose for the environment and pollinating insects in particular, are regulated through the precautionary principle.
Case Study, Video

Case Study 8: The use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence is often characterized as a transformational technology for the twenty-first century. Healthcare could be the domain in which AI will have the most impact, transforming practices in, amongst others, the fields of diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, allocating resources, organizing files, and automated operations.
Case Study, Video

Case Study 9: Microplastics in Food and Cosmetic Products

Microplastics are small pieces of plastics, usually defined as smaller than 5 millimeters. They enter the environment via two routes. Primary microplastics are intentionally added to products, as is done in cosmetic products, to increase certain product characteristics.
Case Study, Video

Case Study 6: Glyphosate

Glyphosate is one of the world’s most widely used herbicides, used in European agriculture to control weeds in a wide range of crops. The substance’s license was recently renewed, causing outrage and controversy due to its assumed connection to carcinogenic effects on humans and animals.
Case Study, Video

Case Study on CRISPR-based gene drives

Synthetic gene drives based on the CRISPR-cas9 genetic engineering method could be used to spread artificially modified genes through wild populations faster.
Policy Brief, Report

Taking stock of the precautionary principle since 2000

The precautionary principle is supposed to enable decision-makers to adopt precautionary measures even if scientific uncertainties about environmental and health risks remain.

Case Study, Report

Case Studies: Conceptual and methodological frameworks

One of the RECIPES project’s aims is to understand and explain the differences in the application of the precautionary principle in 9 different case topics, in a way that reflects the particular context of the case and the arguments for invoking the precautionary principle.
Case Study

RECIPES' Case Studies: Aligning Precaution and Innovation

How can we ensure that innovative products and solutions are fostered and encouraged when their impacts on human health and the environment are not fully known?