The 48-month EU-funded NextGEM project, which was launched on the 1st of July 2022, will ensure EU citizens’ healthy living and a safe working environment when employing existing and future EMF-based telecommunication technologies
The NextGEM project held its kick-off meeting on 19-21 of July 2022, at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) premises in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. NextGEM is a 48-month Horizon Europe project that officially launched on 1st July 2022 with a total budget of 7.56 M€ funded under the “Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health” call.
The Institute of Computer Science of FORTH (ICS-FORTH) is the coordinator of the NextGEM project and the consortium consists of 20 organisations based in 10 different countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Israel). Among the 20 organisations, there are 4 Research Institutions (FORTH, CNR, CSIC and CIMNE), 6 Universities (Cassino, Hague, Delft, Hebrew, Mainz, and Zurich), 5 Public and Government organisations (ISS, Sciensano, RIVM, Spanish Ministry of Health, and Dutch Radiocommunications Agency), 3 Small and Medium Enterprises (eBOS, SciProof and Sphynx) and 2 Industrial partners (Intracom Telecom and Telecom Italia). Each partner brings unique expertise, essential for the implementation of the project; including measurements and modelling of the EMF sources, investigation of potential health effects by experimental and human studies, investigating possible causal links between EMF exposure level and duration on potential health effects and performing risk assessment, and development of an innovation and knowledge hub to be used by scientists, authorities, and for citizens’ awareness.
The NextGEM vision is to ensure EU citizens’ healthy living and a safer working environment when employing existing and future EMF-based telecommunication technologies. This will be accomplished by generating relevant knowledge that identifies appropriate control measures of EMF exposure in the residential, public, and occupational settings, trustable by people and in line with the regulations and laws issued by the public authorities. For that, NextGEM will provide a framework for the generation of health-relevant scientific knowledge and data on new scenarios of exposure to EMF in multiple frequency bands. The project also aims to develop and validate tools for evidence-based risk assessment. NextGEM will also create the NextGEM Innovation and Knowledge Hub (NIKH) for EMF and Health offering a standardised way for European regulatory authorities and the scientific community to store and assess project outcomes and insights into how EMF exposures affect health. Three case studies are planned to demonstrate and validate NextGEM’s results on different groups of geographical and socio-economic conditions. The first one will investigate the potential effects of indoor levels of radiofrequency exposure of vulnerable people on reproduction and development. The second will focus on optimized outdoor urban planning and 5G design architecture and investigations for public awareness of cancer-related health hazards. Finally, the third one will focus on the potential health effects of mmWave EMF exposure in indoor and outdoor environments.
NextGEM project along with the three other Horizon Europe projects selected for funding from the call HORIZON- HLTH-2021-ENVHLTH-02-01 Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health (SEAWave, ETAIN, GOLIAT) will form the EMF and Health Cluster to optimise synergies, avoid overlaps and increase the impact of the projects. Moreover, the project will include a communication and dissemination programme full of activities to maximize the impact of the results generated and increase general awareness on the subject, and a website and social media available to the general public to be updated with the project outcomes.
Dr. Nikolaos Petroulakis, Project Coordinator, ICS-FORTH, npetro@ics.forth.gr
nextgem.eu @NextGEM_eu nextgem-project/
