I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and to thank all Mara members as well as some SIEF members for their support during 2019.

2019, saw the highest number of dossier updates driven by ECHA’s continuous request on the dossier evaluation arm of REACH since the 2010 registration deadline. Mara submitted 6 dossiers out of MARA’s substance portfolio of 12.

2020 is anticipated to focus more on dossier updates in accordance with the Commission, ECHA and CEFIC’s recommendation for proactive self-initiated dossier updates. For Mara, all dossiers under compliance checks have been updated, so 2020 will focus on bringing those dossiers that are not under compliance checks up-to-date with the new information gathered, new guidance documents from ECHA, new uses, Updated IUCLID and Chesar tools and more.

While dossier updates will take centre stage this year, on-going developmental toxicity studies will remain an important aspect of this year’s work. Anticipated for completion by June 2020, affected dossiers will be updated with this new information and any new classification and labelling aspects triggered by these studies will be communicated to the SIEF via Mara’s website.

Outside EU REACH, significant work focusing on data-sharing to facilitate UK REACH,  K-REACH and Turkey REACH Registrations with the aim of ensuring a harmonised classification across inorganic Mn substances by using the same data. All data owned by MARA are to GLP and OECD standards, hence can be used reliably for Regulatory compliance outside the EU.

 Outside the above mentioned major tasks,  ensuring the smooth running of the consortium, communication with SIEF’s, managing LoA request etc, the consortium will seek to develop and execute strategists that will enable 2020 projects/ tasks to be executed in a faster,  efficient  and cost effective manner.

From a financial standpoint, the aim is to continue along the same lines as 2019 by -

• Reducing management and operating cost via more stringent management of Mara suppliers, use of cheaper online tools for meetings and shopping for cheaper but more efficient suppliers.
• Improving on the SG’s consulting aspect of my role but not losing focus on the aforementioned tasks
• Increasing the use of Mara’s data outside the EU

….and finally, I wish you all the best in 2020  as well as a productive and profitable year.