Archive News

September 5, 2025Eawag scientist Serina Robinson receives the ERC Starting Grant. She is investigating how microbial enzymes bind PFAS.

September 4, 2025Groundwater, which provides 80 percent of Switzerland's drinking water, is the focus of the Eawag Info Day taking place today in Dübendorf.

August 27, 2025The water research institute Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland are part of the new EU project UrbanM2O. It is led by the Danish Technical University DTU in Copenhagen. The aim of the six-million-euro project is to develop monitoring and modelling-based solutions to combat water pollution in cities – an issue that is becoming increasingly important with the expansion of sponge cities.

August 19, 2025A controversial serum has been necessary for the growth of cells in the context of animal-free toxicology research. Eawag researchers have now developed an alternative.

July 10, 2025To curb global plastic pollution and to make plastics safer and more sustainable, countries are currently negotiating a global treaty. A new study with participation from Eawag and Empa published in Nature provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of all chemicals that can be present in plastics, their properties, uses, and hazards. Moreover, the study also provides a scientific approach for identifying chemicals of concern. This allows scientists and manufacturers to develop safer plastics and policy makers to promote a non-toxic circular economy.

June 17, 2025Researchers from the Ecotox Centre, Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland have tested combined biological and chemical online monitoring as an early warning system at a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The system is able to detect peak loads of micropollutants in treated wastewater and identify toxic pollutants in real time. In this way, it can contribute to improving wastewater management.

June 10, 2025A sudden drop in temperature in Lake Geneva over the Whitsun weekend is leaving swimmers feeling chilly: within a few days, the surface water temperature near the city of Geneva fell by around 8 degrees. This is due to a natural phenomenon that can be observed impressively on the Alplakes platform.

May 21, 2025Tyre abrasion gets from the road into adjacent soils and affects soil organisms. A joint study by the Ecotox Centre, the aquatic research institute Eawag and the EPFL now shows that earthworms avoid soil that is heavily contaminated with tyre particles. However, the particles had no negative effects on the survival and reproduction of the animals.

May 13, 2025The year 2024 was very warm and very wet, especially in early summer. This led to a welcome replenishment of groundwater reservoirs and record hydropower production, but also to severe flooding. In Bern, the focus was on the further expansion of hydropower and the pollution of water resources by pesticides and the "eternal chemicals" PFAS.

March 26, 2025Not only are the numbers of species declining, but the composition of species communities is also changing. This is shown by a new study published in the journal “Nature”.