Scientists on board to help businesses make product progress

YORK has welcomed the arrival of the new Centre for Chemical Safety and Stewardship (CCSS), bringing together internationally recognised scientific expertise under one roof to help businesses get their products on the market.
 
Part of The Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) based at Sand Hutton, the CCSS offers agrichemical and pharmaceutical companies across Europe expertise, knowledge and resources, providing impartial scientific studies and interpretation of legislator constraints and impacts to help them.
 
Around 600 scientists are based at FERA, with 60 in the new CCSS division.
 
Senior environmental scientist at CCSS, Chris Sinclair, said the centre fills a “capability gap” in the market and offers companies under pressure from complex regulation and compliance, a solution.
 
He said: “The cost to individual companies of registering or renewing licences is in the millions and while they can outsource the low-end laboratory work required to achieve registration or renewal, there is a real gap when it comes to designing and implementing studies for more complex challenges.
 
“We are unique in that we have the necessary expertise in one place and we also have access to the vast pool of additional resource and skill within Fera.
 
“The effect of chemicals in the environment is an increasing worry for society and regulations and compliance are becoming more and more complex as a result. We can shoulder some of the pressure that companies are under and ultimately help to ensure a safer environment for everyone.

“This is really good for us. A lot of the staff have been here for a number of years but this is recognising these experts and bringing them together. It is about acknowledging the expertise here and moving the science forward.

“Now the scientists can explore chemical safety together.”