LRI Research Program

Dr. Richard Becker

Mission

LRI’s mission is to catalyze innovations in chemical safety science.

LRI's innovative research program is designed to improve the way we address the safety of our chemicals, particularly everyday exposures of consumers to low levels of chemicals and chemical mixtures.

The LRI fosters a sustainable and healthy future through its support of high quality science that can inform effective decision making by industry, regulators, and society.

Principles

The following principles are the basis of the LRI program and ensure that the funded research meets the highest quality standards:

Scientific Excellence. The best research proposals and most-qualified scientists will be selected for funding.
Transparency. Research will be conducted openly and the results will be publicly available.
Fair and Unbiased Conduct. Potential conflicts of interest will be rigorously evaluated.
Relevance to the Chemical Industry. Research will address the potential health and environmental impacts of chemicals.

The Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) was established by the American Chemistry Council in 1999 to demonstrate its commitment to advance scientific understanding of the potential impacts of chemicals on human health and the environment. By design, the LRI research program does not focus on specific chemicals but rather identifies broad areas of scientific investigation that are relevant to the chemical industry and society. The LRI is an extension of the ACC Responsible Care^® initiative, the chemical industry’s global voluntary commitment to continuous improvement in environmental, health, safety, and security performance.

The ACC LRI is part of a global LRI program under the auspices of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and includes LRI programs supported by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA). Through the ICCA, these independently managed LRI research programs support complementary areas of scientific investigation with the overall goal to promote improvements in the way that industry, academia, and governments evaluate chemicals.

Program Management

Strategic Science Team

The LRI Strategic Science Team (SST), which includes both senior scientists and science managers from ACC member companies as well as from outside of industry, is responsible for managing the LRI and for implementing the research strategy. The SST reports to the ACC Board of Directors, which ensures coordination of the LRI’s activities with other high priority issues across ACC.

The SST formulates the LRI Research Strategy with input from other ACC teams so that it reflects the overall objectives of ACC and its member companies. An important driver for the research strategy is to design a research program that can fill critical knowledge gaps by complementing areas of scientific investigation not addressed by other ongoing research programs. To that end, the LRI promotes partnerships with governmental and non-governmental agencies that can optimize the use of scientific resources towards mutual research goals.

Implementing LRI Research Projects

The research projects selected by the SST are designed to address the objectives outlined in the LRI Research Strategy. LRI research projects are typically carried out by interdisciplinary investigator groups, including those from academia, private corporations, research institutions and governmental agencies. Detailed information on specific LRI research projects can be found in the LRI Research Catalog and on the LRI Current Projects web page.

About Funded Research

LRI-funded investigators are responsible for all aspects of the design and management of their studies. LRI strongly encourages its investigators to publish the results of their research in peer-reviewed journals so that this information is open and available to all. In the event that the results are not published, reports from the study will be publicly available. LRI research contracts specifically state that the LRI has no approval authority concerning publications and presentations. LRI researchers own their data and determine when and what will be communicated and published.

Research Impact

Each LRI research project is developed with an impact delivery component designed to accelerate the use of the research findings. The goal is to widely communicate information about LRI-funded research, generate discussion about the findings, and assess appropriate next steps for the research. One example is LRI-sponsored workshops that explore new areas of research or that focus on a body of research and consider its relevance to decision-making. Another example is investigator presentation of their results at high-quality scientific conferences.