NACIONALNI LABORATORIJ ZA ZDRAVJE, OKOLJE IN HRANO

Their core work

The National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food (NLZOH) is Slovenia's national reference laboratory, conducting analytical testing and scientific work across human health, food safety, and environmental monitoring. In H2020, they participated as a clinical and microbiological testing site in a major European study on Clostridium difficile infections — a serious antimicrobial resistance threat — contributing diagnostic capacity and real-world patient data. They also played a preparatory role in building METROFOOD-RI, the EU's pan-European research infrastructure for metrology in food and nutrition, working on its governance and national node architecture. This dual track — operational diagnostics and strategic infrastructure development — reflects a laboratory operating at the intersection of national public health service delivery and European scientific network-building.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2017), NLZOH contributed operational laboratory capacity to a clinical infectious disease study — a participant role with no recorded keyword footprint, suggesting they functioned as a data-generating or testing site rather than a concept-driving partner. By their second engagement (2019), the focus shifted entirely toward strategic infrastructure: the keywords from METROFOOD-PP cover governance, legal entity setup, financial planning, and national node architecture within a central hub model. The direction of travel is away from pure wet-lab participation and toward institutional positioning as a recognized national laboratory node within European research infrastructure networks.

NLZOH is positioning itself as a national hub node within pan-European research infrastructures — particularly in food and nutrition metrology — making them a valuable partner for ESFRI-linked or research infrastructure-building projects in those domains.

How they like to work

NLZOH has not coordinated any H2020 projects; they join as a participant or third party, contributing specialist capacity rather than driving project vision. Despite their small direct project footprint, they appear within large, complex consortia — COMBACTE-CDI and METROFOOD-PP together span 55 unique partners across 20 countries — indicating they are comfortable operating as a national node within multi-country, multi-institution networks. Working with them likely means accessing accredited national laboratory capacity and an established connection to Slovenian public health and food safety infrastructure.

Through just two H2020 projects, NLZOH has connected with 55 unique consortium partners across 20 countries — an unusually broad network for such a small project count, reflecting the large-scale, distributed nature of both COMBACTE-CDI and the METROFOOD-RI initiative.

What sets them apart

NLZOH holds a rare institutional position as Slovenia's integrated national reference laboratory covering health, environment, and food under one roof — a scope that few single institutions match across EU member states. Their involvement in METROFOOD-RI's preparatory phase suggests they are one of the designated national nodes for food metrology in that future European infrastructure, giving them formal standing in that network. For consortium builders, they offer a single entry point to Slovenian national laboratory infrastructure operating under EU-recognized technical and accreditation standards.

Highlights from their portfolio

• COMBACTE-CDI
  An IMI2-funded flagship project tackling one of Europe's most urgent antimicrobial resistance challenges — C. difficile infections — placing NLZOH within a high-profile industry-academia consortium at the frontier of infectious disease research.
• METROFOOD-PP
  A preparatory phase project for a future ESFRI research infrastructure, with NLZOH contributing to the governance, legal, and strategic architecture of a pan-European food metrology network — a role that signals long-term institutional commitment to this domain beyond a single project cycle.