The EURADOS Strategic Research Agenda - Vision for Dosimetry of Ionizing Radiation

The European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) is a self-sustainable network of about 60 European institutions, including about 500 scientists active in the field of radiation dosimetry. The mission of the network includes promotion of European cooperation in research and development in the dosimetry of ionizing radiation and its implementation in routine practice. EURADOS Working Groups (WG) are active in various dosimetric fields such as harmonization of individual monitoring, environmental dosimetry, computational dosimetry, internal dosimetry, dosimetry for medical applications, retrospective dosimetry, and dosimetry in high-energy radiation fields. Harmonization, and education and training are also important activities for EURADOS, through the organization of intercomparisons (e.g. intercomparisons on individual and environmental monitoring, dose assessment in case of internal exposure, computational methods in dosimetry) and training courses.

Recently, EURADOS has published its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) which is intended to contribute to the identification of future research needs in radiation dosimetry in Europe. The present paper summarises the five visions that have been formulated for dosimetry and defines key issues in dosimetry research that are considered important for the next decades. The five visions include scientific developments required towards a) updated fundamental dose concepts and quantities, b) improved radiation risk estimates deduced from epidemiological cohorts, c) efficient dose assessment for radiological emergencies, d) integrated personalized dosimetry in medical applications, and e) improved radiation protection of workers and the public. The SRA of EURADOS may be useful to define future actions in the field of European radiation protection research.