The Research Unit "Environmental Physiology and Experimental Zoology" (DiBio) is a partner of the LIFE PHOENIX project which main objectives are:

• the check of the possibility of "early warning", by evaluating the intake of PMOC (in particular short-chain PFAS) dispersed in the environment, in animal bioindicators both terrestrial (such as earthworm, ubiquitous in agricultural and natural environments) and aquatic, and in plants;
• the development of a smart methodology to provide a correlation between biodiversity levels in the agricultural area and environmental stress levels;
• the implementation of mitigation strategies, by using innovative and natural technologies.

A further important objective of the project is the dissemination of the knowledge of PFAS related problems in other European and extra-European contexts. As part of the Bilateral Agreements and of Erasmus+ Internationalization actions with European and non-European countries, promoted by the University of Padua (Italy), the Research Unit "Environmental Physiology and Experimental Zoology", of the Department of Biology (DiBio), keeps an agreement dating from 2008 with the State University of Penza (Russian Federation).

From the beginning, the focus of this cooperation project has been on biodiversity issues, that has significant interest at European and national level. In fact, as defined by the Convention on National Strategy for Biodiversity Conservation (Rome, 2010) «The richness of species and the complexity of the forms of life that surround us have an intrinsic importance, not only ecological, but also economic, social and ethics».

Moreover, it is necessary to point out the importance of the analysis of the risks connected to the depletion of the water resource that can derive both from an indiscriminate use and from pollution with persistent pollutants, with unclear effects on the trophic and ecological chains, such as Perfluorinaated Alkyl Substances (PFAS), which can cause elevated "irreversible" exposure (Ian Cousins, Madrid Declaration, September 2014).

With these premises, from October 23rd to November 1st 2018, the DiBio coordinator of the Phoenix project was invited to the "Lomonosov Moscow State University" of Moscow, first, and the "Penza State University" of Penza, then, to lecture a Lectio Magistralis to students, PhD students and Professors titled "LIFE PHOENIX: an European project for the management of risks related to the diffusion of Persistent Mobile Organic Chemicals (PMOCs)".

The topic attracted a lot of interest, especially from the Professors, among them there were also socio-economists, as they were not aware either of the characteristics of the PFASs or of the widespread use of these compounds. Many questions were then posed about the size of the area considered, the number of people involved and whether it was possible to make correlations between age, sex and PFAS levels, the major pathologies found, and which actions the Veneto region plans to implement in order to prevent health and environmental risks.

What has further motivated the discussion was the lack of knowledge of this important (worldwide) problem and the fact that, probably, it could also be present in Russia. This led to a formal commitment to work even more on issues related to the environmental protection, which took place on November 30 with the presentation of a project of "University Cooperation Initiatives - Year 2019", UNIPD, entitled " Biodiversity, pollution and climate change ", between the Department of Biology (Italy), Lomonosov Moscow State University and Penza State University (Russian Federation).