NeXED is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network, funded by the European Union (Horizon Europe) and will start in January 2025.

The EU has flagged endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which interfere with normal hormonal function leading to adverse health effects, of particular concern. Advances in terms of new test methods and approaches for assessment of EDCs are needed to meet the continuously evolving regulatory requirements, and a new generation of toxicologists must be trained to support continuous innovation and implementation of the most advanced approaches.

NeXED will address three critical challenges in this area:

1. Human and environmental EDC assessment have historically been separate disciplines while there is an increasing need to combine data across species in a One Health approach.
2. EDC assessment currently addresses single compounds while in an environmentally realistic scenario organisms are faced with complex mixtures of EDCs. 
3. New test methods and approaches for EDC assessment are needed, covering less well-characterised mechanisms and effects.

NeXED aims to facilitate a paradigm shift in EDC assessment by training a new generation of cross-disciplinary toxicologists specialised in using harmonised approaches in a One Health framework. NeXED will train its 15 doctoral candidates  through research, secondments and training events using an interdisciplinary and intersectoral training programme.

NeXED will be funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (Grant Agreement number 101168892). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.