Oral Presentation SETAC Asia-Pacific Virtual Conference 2022

International collaboration in coaching the development of Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) in OECD (#13)

Shihori Tanabe 1 , Dan Villeneuve 2 , Ed Perkins 3 , Julija Filipovska 4 , Rex FitzGerald 5 , Sabina Halappanavar 6 , Jason O’Brien 7 , Brigitte Landesmann 8 , Andrea Terron 9 , Cinzia La Rocca 10 , Carlie LaLone 2 , Olga Tcheremenskaia 10 , Tanja Burgdorf 11 , Judy Choi 11 , Barbara Viviani 12 , Knut Erik Tollefsen 13 14 15 , Magda Sachana 16 , Nathalie Delrue 16 , You Song 13 , Stefan Scholz 11 , Carole Yauk 17 , Mirjam Luijten 18
  1. National Institute of Health Sciences, Kawasaki, KANAGAWA, Japan
  2. Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division, US EPA, Duluth, MN, United States
  3. Environmental Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS, United States
  4. Independent, Ohrid, North Macedonia
  5. Universities of Basel and Geneva, Basel, Switzerland
  6. Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada
  7. Wildlife Toxicology Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  8. European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
  9. EFSA Europe, Parma, Italy
  10. Istituto Superiore Di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy
  11. German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany
  12. DiSFeB, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
  13. Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway
  14. Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Ås, Norway
  15. Centre for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD), Ås, Norway
  16. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France
  17. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  18. National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherland

To accelerate the development of the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework and the corresponding community of practice, a coaching program has been introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2019. International collaborative research related to AOP development and its coaching started at the Extended Advisory Group on Molecular Screening and Toxicogenomics (EAGMST) in OECD. AOPs submitted by each country or consortium to EAGMST are assigned to coaches. The current AOP coaching team is composed of experienced AOP developers from various countries, and international collaborative research is promoted through coaching programs. Coaches provide guidance and feedback to new developers, help to address specific questions they may have about the AOP framework or the AOP-Wiki, and confirm compliance with the OECD guidance document and developers’ handbook before the AOP is submitted for external peer review. Coach meetings are held online twice per year to discuss how coaching should proceed. A navigating document summarizing frequently asked questions in the coaching process in Q&A format has been prepared and there is also a coaching forum where developers and coaches alike can post questions and hold online discussions. A significant aim of the coaching program is to balance the academic rigor of AOP development with the pragmatic aspects of regulatory application of AOPs and new approach methodologies. The coaching program is one step that OECD and its member countries are taking to help support a transition in the way that chemical safety assessments, and other science-based decision-making related to human and environmental health, are conducted. Contents of this abstract neither constitute, nor necessarily reflect the official policy of the OECD or its member countries and organizations.