Two-year project includes software upgrade and training
Turkey has secured fresh funds from the European Union for the second-stage implementation of its REACH-like Regulation KKDIK.
Plans for the €1.6m include a software upgrade to match the current version of the IT platform operating in the EU.
The Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation (MoEU) has confirmed the new funds and it had shortlisted six consortia after putting out a tender for the two-year project. They include software companies involved in the development of Iuclid 6 – the IT tool used in REACH, sources said.
The second stage of the tender will begin next week and the project is expected to start during 2019, officials at the ministry added.
The new funds are part of the Instrument for the Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) programme for Turkey, which, as a member of the EU customs union that is eyeing full membership has been aligning its chemicals regulations with those of the bloc.
They will give a much needed boost to the MoEU’s plans to build capacity for KKDIK after it used up an initial €2.5m budget in developing the legislation. The Regulation came into effect at the end of 2017 and sets a registration deadline of 2023, with pre-registrations due by the end of next year.
Part of the project funds will go towards upgrading the government’s IT portal – KKS – to Iuclid 6. KKS currently runs an older version of the software and there have been concerns over its incompatibility with the REACH-IT tool, the sources said.
The ministry, which oversees the implementation of KKDIK, will also use the money to provide more training schemes for industry, and for its own chemicals regulation team to acquire further professional qualifications, they added.
The project will also include the adaptation into Turkish of QSAR (quantitative structure activity relationships) modelling, used in chemicals risk assessment.
Source: ChemicalWatch