water; a green, hydrogen-based battery not only causes no air pollution but is also up to ten times as powerful as a fossil-fuel battery of the same scale, is quieter than a generator, does not heat up, and is stable and low-maintenance. Thanks to these advantages, there is a global shift toward a hydrogen economy, which means, among other things, replacing fossil fuel–based vehicles with vehicles based on hydrogen technology. “There are fundamental regulatory challenges that need to be addressed concerning the infrastructure of this transition: we have to study how to transport and store hydrogen and then map out locations for hydrogen stations all around the country. We can assume there will be an interim period during which the existing gas stations will carry both fossil fuel and hydrogen. Since hydrogen is highly flammable, we must assess the risks such stations pose and take precautions accordingly. Also, in a hydrogen economy, fewer fossil-fuel stations will be in use, so we have to explore ways to dismantle them and clean the polluted sites they will leave behind.” A Sustainable Future of Collaborations Building a hydrogen economy is part of a much greater global transition, led by the European Union (EU), to a climate-neutral world. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many countries to step up their efforts; many followed the European Green Deal, established their own green plans and pledged to fight climate change and improve people’s health and well-being. “One of the EU’s commitments is helping industries reduce emissions,” says Prof. Perez, “which presents us with the complex challenge of assessing and managing chemical-mixture toxicity.” The toxicology testing method used today measures the toxicity of each individual chemical substance separately in the lab, often by exposing animals to them, a method that is not only morally questionable but also scientifically problematic because in the real world, we breathe emissions in as a mixture. Although perfectly safe on their own, the same chemicals in a mixture can become toxic; given the infinite number of mixtures possible, it is unfeasible to test them all in the lab. To find a suitable solution, the EU issued a call to scientists for proposals. In response, BINA and BIU’s Faculty of Law formed an international team of scientists from Finland, Great Britain, Luxemburg, Germany and Taiwan and submitted a joint research proposal. “We proposed meeting this challenge using computational chemistry and data-science tools, including machine learning, natural language processing and other AI techniques to build an advanced assessment tool for chemical-mixture toxicity and to design an algorithmic regulation model that will align with European legal policies.” Although their proposal was not selected, the interdisciplinary infrastructure for future collaborations was established. “Since the regulation of toxic emissions is a crucial issue, algorithmic regulation remains a topic of an ongoing research project that my PhD student Nurit Wimer has been heading.” Better Together The growing interest in environmental law and its application to technology is clearly apparent in the increase in the number of research students who are enrolling in the Faculty of Law’s MA program in Environmental Regulation and Policy at BIU. “These research students and the work of the LawData Lab are essential to our ability to broaden our collaborations with BINA. We’re also in the process of setting up a sustainability school that will strengthen both interdisciplinary teaching and research. Through such initiatives, we keep closing the gaps between scientists of different fields, entrepreneurs, governmental ministries and regulatory agencies and improve our ability to work together to find solutions to practical problems and policy challenges.” “One of the EU’s commitments is helping industries reduce emissions, which presents us with the complex challenge of assessing and managing chemical-mixture toxicity” 36
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