European Low Dose Risk Research Strategy

Although much is known about the quantitative effects of exposure to ionising radiation, considerable uncertainties and divergent views remain about the health effects at low doses. Many of the European states have national research programmes in this area, however, beyond the Euratom research programme, little has been done to integrate these programmes in the past. The European High Level and Expert Group (HLEG) recently made a motion for the establishment of a Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Research Initiative (MELODI) that would create a platform for low dose research under a jointly agreed Strategic Research Agenda (www.hleg.de). In 2010, a Network of Excellence called DoReMi was launched by the Euratom FP7 programme. DoReMi will act as an operational tool for the development of the MELODI platform during the next six years. The joint programme for research focuses on the areas identified by the HLEG as the most promising in terms of addressing/resolving the key policy questions, namely: the shape of dose response curve for cancer, individual susceptibilities and non-cancer effects. Radiation quality, tissue sensitivities and internal exposures will be addressed as cross cutting themes within the three main research areas..