2025 Willem Koerselman Prize goes to co-author Frederic Béen

The paper in question racked up just short of 100 citations in 2025. Béen contributed to the section on data processing. When accepting the award, the researcher emphasised the team effort that went into writing the prize-winning NORMAN guidance. KWR colleagues from the chemical laboratory and researchers from the Chemical Water Quality and Health group have been conducting research in the field of non-target screening for over fifteen years. “For several years now, KWR has been a major contributor to NORMAN, a network of laboratories and research institutes working on research in the field of environmental analyses,” says Béen. This alliance is important for scientific collaboration on emerging substances in the environment, as in drinking water sources, for example. “As a member of the non-target screening working group, KWR is one of the leaders in applications for the drinking water sector,” continues Béen. “The collective research programme Waterwijs provides plenty of scope to take this new and complex technology to the next level. We work intensively with the drinking water laboratories here. A seat at the NORMAN table means we can share our knowledge there and also learn from other members.”

Non-target screening

Non-target screening is an wide-ranging chemical analysis that identifies as many contaminants as possible that could be present in the environment. In addition to water, it also looks at soil, air and human samples such as urine and blood. Béen: “Because of the complexity, non-target screening is difficult to standardise. In addition, a limitation of that kind would be undesirable because it could limit the further development of the technology. So the thinking behind our paper was certainly not to establish a guideline. But we wanted to provide suggestions and minimum requirements that are desirable for generating good and reliable data. One example is the setting up of analyses with enough baseline measurements to rule out any contamination. Non-target screening involves identifying unknown substances and so you need to work precisely to avoid misidentifying substances. You also need to have a meticulous approach to data processing to have enough confidence in the results. In non-target screening, for example, we often apply trend analysis, which allows you to follow developments over time. If there are any anomalies in the data, you want to be sure that they actually reflect changes in the presence of substances in the environment, and not anomalies in the measurement equipment or artefacts of data processing. So your approach to making measurements, and how you process your data, are extremely important.”

Yardstick for scientific papers 

The suggestions in the publication, along with other quality reporting tools that have been proposed recently, are now being used by some scientific journals as a ‘yardstick’ for authors who want to submit a paper on non-target screening. Researchers are required to demonstrate that they have worked in the right way. According to Béen, the paper therefore provides significant added value, both for people who are just starting with non-target screening and those who want to deepen and improve their work in this area. “It raises awareness of the requirements you need to meet with non-target screening, both during the analyses and when you interpret your data. And it enhances the scientific quality of this type of research.”

Supporting network 

That developments relating to non-target screening have been taken up by the NORMAN network in the award-winning paper is a strong move, believes KWR Chief Science Officer Ruud Bartholomeus. “The NORMAN network has a good reputation when it comes to encouraging exchanges of information about emerging environmental substances,” he says. “And it encourages the validation and harmonisation of joint measurement methods and monitoring tools. That makes it easier to comply with the requirements of risk assessors and risk managers. Research teams from different countries feel supported by the network and they can also benefit from the synergy resulting from the exchange of knowledge relating to this important issue. The work presented in the publication contributes to the identification of new problematic substances, and provides methods for assessing risks and information about substances that are, for example, used in industry. With its involvement with the NORMAN network, KWR is maintaining its position at the cutting edge of the latest methods for detecting substances in water. I see the impact of the publication as a confirmation of the importance of the work of KWR colleagues in this network.”

From research tool to practical tool 

Looking to the future, Béen expects non-target screening to play an increasingly important and indispensable role for the water sector. “Water quality is under increasing pressure. There is more and more involved when it comes to identifying substances present in the water and showing that we can treat the water adequately. And so existing routine technologies should be combined with non-target screening. However, as I mentioned, the complexity of this technology involves challenges. In practice, non-target screening is already being used. Even so, it remains complicated and time-consuming. As researchers, we still need to take the necessary steps to make the work easier for the laboratories. Non-target screening has to evolve from a research tool to a practice tool. We also need to keep improving the technology: to make it more sensitive and more comprehensive, as well as easier to identify unknown substances. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

What is the Willem Koerselman Prize?

Since 2009, KWR has awarded the Willem Koerselman Prize to the author working at our institute whose has been cited most in the past year in scientific journals. It inspires researchers to make clear the impact of research on the water sector. The prize is named after KWR researcher Willem Koerselman, who is still scoring well with his publication ‘The vegetation N:P ratio: A new tool to detect the nature of nutrient limitation’ (1996) in the Journal of Applied Ecology with co-author Arthur Meuleman. The total number of citations for that paper is now 2,279, a wonderful achievement and an example for anyone who has an affinity with the water sector.

Frederic Béen wins the 2025 Willem Koerselman Prize

Frederic Béen wins the 2025 Willem Koerselman Prize

Frederic Béen wins the 2025 Willem Koerselman Prize

Frederic Béen wins the 2025 Willem Koerselman Prize

Frederic Béen wins the 2025 Willem Koerselman Prize