Imagine your tap water looks perfectly clear, but invisible toxins produced by algae, plants, and fungi are lurking in it — and most water treatment plants aren't even testing for them. That's the problem NaToxAq tackled. A team of 20 organizations across 8 countries mapped out which natural toxins end up in European drinking water, how climate change is making the problem worse, and what treatment methods can actually remove them. Think of it as building the first comprehensive "threat list" for poisons that nature puts into our water supply, along with tools to spot and eliminate them.
Water utilities and treatment companies face a growing but poorly understood threat: natural toxins like cyanotoxins and cyanogenic glucosides contaminating drinking water sources. Climate change is accelerating the problem by promoting algal blooms and shifting vegetation patterns that release these toxins. Most current monitoring programs don't test for these contaminants, leaving water suppliers blind to an emerging regulatory and public health risk.
The project produced 60 deliverables including effect-directed identification tools for water-soluble toxins (the single demo deliverable). Research covered toxin origin mapping across European climate zones, distribution and fate modeling, and remediation methods specifically designed for natural toxin removal at water treatment works.
If you are a water utility dealing with algal blooms and unexplained taste or quality issues — this project mapped natural toxin pathways from source to tap across European climate zones and developed identification tools for water-soluble toxins. With 15 researchers working across 4 scientific work packages, they produced methods to detect toxins your current monitoring likely misses.
If you are a water testing company looking to expand your analyte portfolio — this project developed effect-directed identification tools for water-soluble toxins and non-targeted analysis methods. With 60 deliverables covering toxin origin, distribution, fate, and remediation, the research provides a scientific basis for new commercial testing services.
If you are a water treatment equipment maker facing customer concerns about emerging contaminants — this project specifically investigated remediation technologies tailored to remove natural toxins like cyanotoxins and cyanogenic glucosides. The consortium included 7 industry partners who tested real-world treatment approaches.
The project data does not include specific cost figures for implementation. As an MSCA training network, NaToxAq focused on building research capacity and developing methods rather than producing turnkey commercial products. Costs would depend on the specific detection or treatment approach adopted from the 60 deliverables produced.
The project involved 7 industry partners including water enterprises, suggesting real-world applicability was considered. However, as a research training network with 15 early-stage researchers, most outputs are at laboratory or early prototype stage. Scaling to full utility operations would require further engineering and validation.
The project was coordinated by the University of Copenhagen under an MSCA-ITN-ETN funding scheme. IP from the 60 deliverables is likely held by the participating institutions. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated directly with the relevant partner organizations in the 20-member consortium.
The project objective explicitly states that results will contribute to strengthening European policies and regulation of drinking water. This positions the research outputs as directly relevant to compliance with the EU Drinking Water Directive and emerging contaminant regulations.
The project ran from 2017 to 2020 and is now closed. Based on available project data, the demo deliverable on effect-directed identification tools suggests early-stage prototyping. Further development, validation, and commercialization steps would be needed before full deployment.
The project developed both targeted and non-targeted analysis methods for natural toxins. Based on available project data, integration specifics are not detailed, but the involvement of 7 industry partners suggests compatibility with existing water sector infrastructure was a design consideration.
The NaToxAq consortium brings together 20 partners across 8 countries (CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, SE, UK, US), with a healthy 35% industry ratio — 7 industry partners alongside 6 universities and 3 research organizations. Coordinated by the University of Copenhagen, the network spans major European water markets plus the US. The presence of water enterprises as partners signals that industry needs were factored into the research direction, though the absence of SMEs (0 reported) and the MSCA training focus mean this is still firmly in the research-to-early-prototype zone rather than a commercialization-ready consortium.
The coordinator is the University of Copenhagen (Kobenhavns Universitet), Denmark. SciTransfer can facilitate a direct introduction to the research team.
Want to know which specific detection or treatment methods from NaToxAq could fit your water quality challenges? SciTransfer can arrange a targeted briefing with the right researchers from the 20-partner consortium.
