EIRENE-NL

Infrastructure and User Services

Infrastructure and Capabilities
EIRENE-NL is the Dutch node of EIRENE, the European infrastructure for human exposome research. It provides access to a distributed network of advanced facilities, datasets, and biorepositories that support the measurement and interpretation of environmental exposures and their impact on health. EIRENE-NL enables the collection and provision of a wide range of biological, environmental, and specimen samples, targeted and untargeted chemical analyses (including parent compounds and transformation products), and omics-based analyses (e.g. metabolomics, lipidomics, epigenomics, microbiomics, and proteomics). The infrastructure supports human, in vitro, and in silico exposure modelling, systems biology approaches, and big data integration using AI-driven tools. All data are managed according to FAIR principles and linked to curated databases and exposure maps (e.g. for air pollution, temperature, noise, and socioeconomic factors).

Services to Users
EIRENE-NL offers an integrated service portfolio for academic, public, and (where permitted) private partners. Services include access to individual-level health and exposure data, biological effect markers, toxicity testing platforms, bioinformatics tools for exposome-health interaction analysis, and tailored training. Costed service sheets have been developed for multiple access types (per dataset, per day, per sample) to ensure transparent and scalable access. A central European EIRENE portal will facilitate transnational and virtual access. EIRENE-NL enables cutting-edge exposome research that supports environmental health policy, public health innovation, and the transition toward predictive and preventive healthcare across Europe.

Examples/description of the type of research

EIRENE-NL enables advanced research into the human exposome—the full range of environmental, behavioural, and societal exposures individuals experience throughout life—and how these contribute to health and disease. It supports a wide range of studies connecting external exposures (e.g. air pollution, climate variables, chemicals, diet, social context) with internal biological responses and long-term health outcomes.

The infrastructure supports both hypothesis-driven and exploratory studies, combining high-throughput chemical and omics analyses (e.g. metabolomics, epigenomics, proteomics) with state-of-the-art modelling and bioinformatics. Researchers can access and integrate tools such as the Exposome Maps, which provide high-resolution spatial data on environmental exposures (e.g. air pollution, temperature, green space), and the Exposome-Scan, an innovative approach to systematically screen large datasets for associations between the exposome and health outcomes.

EIRENE-NL also supports toxicity testing, exposure reconstruction, and biomarker discovery, using in vitro, in vivo, and in silico models. It enables access to curated datasets, harmonised protocols, and federated data infrastructures, fully compliant with FAIR principles.

The infrastructure facilitates research with direct relevance to public health, risk assessment, and environmental policy, such as identifying early warning signals for chronic diseases, supporting regulation of harmful exposures, and informing targeted prevention strategies.

How to access the infrastructure?

EIRENE-NL provides access through three main mechanisms:

• Physical access (~50%) includes on-site use of laboratory facilities such as the Exposome-Scan and other analytical platforms, where users may perform or observe analyses directly.
• Remote access (~30%) allows users to submit samples or data for processing by facility staff, with results delivered digitally.
• Virtual (digital) access (~20%) applies to publicly available tools such as Exposome Maps and future components of the EIRENE data portal.

All access is governed by FAIR principles and will be aligned with EIRENE-ERIC’s centralised access procedures.