e-pec: a major advance in risk assessment as Enviresearch launch new modelling tool for crop protection

Background to the development of e-pec: Many companies are exploring the options for an extended range of uses for their products.  When helping crop protection clients to implement such a strategy, the consultants at Enviresearch noted the significant increase in computer-based simulation of fate and effects of pesticides necessitated by this approach.  Where a single simulation may have been sufficient in the past, the combined requirements of efficacy and safety can now require numerous simulations to find the ideal combination of options.  In response to a clear market need, and following a year-long period of investment and development, Enviresearch has developed e-pec, their new risk assessment modelling tool for agribusiness clients and research and development partners, worldwide.

The development of e-pec stemmed from Enviresearch’s desire to improve the speed, efficiency and accuracy of modelling for the prediction of concentrations of plant protection products in edge-of-field surface waters, particularly for EU regulatory approval scenarios.


e-pec key features: Faster modelling time: in one example, e-pec reduces the modelling time for a standard winter cereals FOCUS STEP 3 simulation by around 80% (30 minutes instead of 2.5 hours), harnessing the step-changes in processing and hardware since the design of previous standard modelling tools for the crop protection sector.

More accurate results with less chance of user error: e-pec uses simple data tables, with one single interface screen.  Compared with other modelling tools, where multiple models each require a separate Graphical User Interface, e-pec both minimises the likelihood of errors in manual data entry and also helps to ensure that the results are those based on the modelling scenario intended by the user.

Benefits of the e-pec modelling tool: The chief benefits of e-pec, and the drivers for development and investment in the new product, are explained by Dr James Garratt, founder and managing director at Enviresearch Limited, “We could see that our clients wanted to explore what passes the risk assessment, from a regulatory point of view, and we wanted to help companies experiment with a range of scenarios more easily, more quickly and more cost-effectively than has been possible, to-date.  All our development time and our investment in e-pec is geared towards making this possible and, perhaps most crucially, to freeing up our specialists’ time so that they can focus more fully on higher-tier problem-solving for our clients. 

We hope e-pec will prove a useful tool and a flexible option for anyone involved in research, both commercial R&D departments as well as our academic partners and university contacts.”

For more information please contact Dr Charles Hazlerigg:
E: charles.hazlerigg@enviresearch.com
T: +44 (0) 191 243 0687
W: www.enviresearch.com

About Enviresearch:
With offices in the UK and in Southern Europe and with an active Foundation which works to both champion and assist academic research as well as to educate the public about the science of sustainable food production, Enviresearch’s team consists of technical experts in the fields of chemistry, environmental fate, ecology, endocrine disruption, risk assessment and regulatory affairs.  The development of the e-pec risk assessment modelling tool was led by Dr James Garratt, Dr Wendy van Beinum and Dr Charles Hazlerigg.