Report MOMENTUM Stakeholder Meeting July 2026

On Friday, July 10, the MOMENTUM stakeholder meeting took place at RIVM in Bilthoven. With a diverse group of stakeholders and interactive sessions, it was an engaging and inspiring event.

After a warm welcome and the launch of the MOMENTUM Collaborative Network (MCN) by Juliette Legler, we heard an insightful keynote from Elvis Okoffo of the University of Queensland, winner of the Dick Vethaak Award. His talk provided valuable insights into the sources of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs).

Following the keynote, Monique Groenewold, leader of MCN’s Risk Assessment working group, introduced the World Café. Participants explored risk-related questions from five perspectives:

• Private sector (2 groups)
• Occupational hygienist
• Policy
• Academia
• Healthcare

In four rounds of 13 minutes each, participants rotated through these perspectives, fostering lively discussions and new insights.

In the next session, participants wrote down their main question about the risks of MNPs on a card. In a fun and interactive music-based activity, they scored each other’s questions in five rounds. The six highest-scored questions were:

1. What effects do MNPs cause at the biological level? Do they accumulate, and what are their adverse health effects?
2. How do we translate the science of MNPs into meaningful policies?
3. How can we investigate the effects of MNPs on human health in citizens?
4. Which MNP characteristics cause which risks?
5. How can we achieve a realistic guideline value for human health for MNPs?
6. What is the scientific consensus regarding MNPs and human health risks?

These questions formed the basis for the afternoon breakout sessions. Before diving into discussions, participants enjoyed lunch and had the opportunity to play the Check the Label game, developed by the University of Groningen (available at checkthelabel.nl).

The afternoon featured breakout sessions where the prioritized questions were discussed in detail, using a list of leading discussion points meant to identify concrete actions that can be taken within MCN and beyond to address the questions. Notes from these sessions are available on Teams for internal users. Taken together, the insights gained during this event will be used to set the priorities for the MCN working group risk assessment for the coming years.

The day concluded with a plenary recap by Monique and closing remarks by Juliette. A big thank you to everyone who attended! We look forward to seeing you at our next stakeholder event on December 4, 2026 in The Hague, encourage you all to join our MOMENTUM Collaborative Network.