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Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI)

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Dr. Richard Becker
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The Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) promotes innovations in chemical safety assessment. It invests in science essential for understanding the impact of chemicals on human health and the environment.

With a focus on biologically-relevant exposures, LRI adopts an integrated approach to exposure and hazard characterization to promote a shift in focus away from development of safety assessments based solely on hazard or exposure data.

Through integration and translation of its research outcomes, LRI transforms this information into knowledge that can inform decisions and policies about the safety of chemicals relevant to current environmental and public health challenges.

LRI at a Glance

25+
Years of advancing chemical safety science
100+
Research projects funded worldwide
1K+
Scientific and experts engaged globally
20+
Countries collaborating on shared research priorities
500+
Publications and scientific outputs

Why LRI Matters

Through investments in exposure science, toxicology, public health science, risk assessment, and emerging scientific methodologies, LRI advances the tools and knowledge needed to better understand the potential health and environmental impacts of chemicals. By supporting research that improves chemical safety assessments, LRI helps strengthen the scientific foundation used to evaluate chemicals and inform future scientific advancements.

LRI strives to bring together leading scientists from academia, government, research institutions, and industry to address complex scientific challenges. Guided by principles of scientific excellence, transparency, and fair and unbiased conduct, LRI supports high-quality research and encourages collaboration across disciplines. LRI’s research findings are publicly available, helping expand scientific knowledge and contribute to the advancements being made in chemical safety science across the broader community of public health professionals.

LRI supports research that helps inform decisions across industry, government, and the scientific community. By developing innovative scientific approaches, tools, and methods, LRI contributes to a stronger understanding of chemical safety and sustainability. The knowledge generated through LRI research helps provide the scientific foundation needed to support informed, science-based decision-making.

As scientific approaches continue to evolve, LRI supports research that strengthens the science used in chemical assessment and risk evaluation. Current research priorities include advancing exposure science, developing New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), and improving approaches for evaluating cumulative impacts and community health considerations. These efforts help support product stewardship, sustainability initiatives, and science-based regulatory decision-making.

Chemical safety challenges are global, and scientific progress depends on collaboration. As part of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) Long-Range Research Initiative, ACC works alongside scientific and industry partners in North America, Europe, and Asia to advance shared research priorities. Through international collaboration and interdisciplinary scientific networks, LRI helps connect research, policy, and practice to support chemical safety science worldwide.

Research Priorities

Accelerating Exposure Science for Product Stewardship, Sustainability and Regulatory Decision-Making

LRI is funding the development of state-of-the-art gold-standard exposure models to power realistic, science-based exposure assessments for regulatory, product stewardship, and sustainability decisions.

  • This initiative addresses gaps in understanding of exposures and conditions of use by developing modernized data-driven methods and tools for use in risk-based decision making to enable risk assessors to confidently move away from  unrealistic, worst-case estimates.
  • The effort aims to improve regulatory accuracy, foster the creation of innovative products, and increase confidence in chemical safety evaluations.
Advancing New Approach Methods (NAMs) for Application in Risk Assessment

LRI is catalyzing collaborative research to increase the scientific confidence in NAMs for regulatory and product stewardship uses for human health and ecological safety evaluations.

  • NAMs are a shift toward modern, animal-free chemical assessment. NAMs include computer (in silico) and in vitro methods, and combinations of these, to replace legacy tests using lab animals.
  • The Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA specifically requires use of NAMs when a specific NAM (or a specific combination of NAMs) has been shown to provide relevant information of equivalent or better scientific quality to traditional lab animal toxicity tests.
  • To meet this scientific standard, LRI research projects contribute to the datasets needed to demonstrate these tools produce scientifically solid results that can be relied upon for specific product stewardship and regulatory decisions.

Science in Action

Science in Action highlights how LRI-supported research advances chemical safety science and contributes to a greater understanding of the potential health and environmental impacts of chemicals. Explore featured projects, publications, and research highlights that demonstrate how scientific discoveries can inform future research, innovation, and decision-making.

Learn more
Strengthening Public Health Science Approaches for Evaluating Co-exposures and Cumulative Impacts in Communities

LRI is contributing research funding to accelerate development of more robust methodologies to better understand the combined effects of multiple environmental stressors in communities.

  • Identifying and addressing the root causes of health inequities in communities is challenging because health outcomes are shaped by many factors, including socioeconomic conditions, psychological stress, underlying health conditions, individual susceptibility, and the physical environment, which can include disproportionate exposure to environmental chemical.
  • Accordingly, LRI research focuses on these key areas:
    • Strengthening frameworks and methods to evaluate chemical mixtures and co-exposures.
    • Developing methods to communicate and visualize the cumulative impacts of environmental stressors.
    • Exploring the power of AI to improve the scientific rigor and efficiency for analyzing and integrating epidemiological studies for cause-and-effect determinations of health impacts.
Propelling Innovations in Chemical Risk Sciences Across the Globe

LRI is working with Europe (Cefic) and Japan (JCIA) to modernize methods for safety evaluations of chemical products across the world.

  • Together, the LRI Programs fund new research to innovate safety testing to make it faster, more realistic, more precise, and less reliant on traditional lab animal test methods.
  • The complementary and collaborative research supported by the LRI programs in the US, Europe, and Japan can be utilized across the world.
  • Although chemical regulatory frameworks and rules vary in different regions across the world, the scientific data and information to determine safety are frequently very similar.
  • Therefore, the scientific innovations catalyzed by LRI funding can be used worldwide to stimulate modernization of chemical safety evaluation procedures for hazard, exposure, and risk assessments.