Second REP-LECOTOX Workshop "Trends in Ecological Risk Assessment", University of Novi Sad, Serbia, 21-23 September 2009

a. To present comprehensive information about the current state, challenges and trends in the field of both chemical and ecological risk assessment (ERA), with special reference to application into environmental management practice;b. To provide local and regional professionals, decision makers and different stakeholders (e.g. industry, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)...) with the comprehensive overview of the valid European Union (EU) regulations and future trends regarding chemical and ecological risk assessment (with special reference to Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)-EC No. 1907/2006 and Water Framework Directive (WFD));c. To serve as a forum for networking, knowledge and information exchange and dissemination, providing a substantial contribution to Serbian/Western Balkan Countries societies in the processes of transposition of and harmonisation with the EU environmental legislation, policy and practice.The workshop was structured in two large sessions.Session 1: Risk assessment of chemicals with special attention to REACH, which was divided according to topics into three sub-sessions:1.A. Legislative aspect;1.B. Emerging substances and nano-materials: analyses, environmental fate, effects, ERA;1.C. Incorporating "omic" information into risk assessment and policy.Session 2: Ecosystem risk assessment, which was also divided into three sub-sessions:2.A. Aquatic ecosystems, ERA in WFD and Groundwater Directive;2.B. Special ERA topic--up-scaling;2.C. Terrestrial ecosystems.Two keynote lecturers and even eighteen invited speakers (Figure 1) from well-known European research institutions presented extremely diverse ERA topics, ranging from case studies to conceptual frameworks and opinion statements. To enable further exchange of experiences and information about the research potential and capacities of local (Serbian) and regional research institutions and teams, seven workshop pa