Thomas Berendonk is the director of the Institute Hydrobiology at the Technische Universität Dresden and he had chaired the COST Action TD 0803 “TD0803 Detecting evolutionary hot spots of antibiotic resistances in Europe (DARE)”. He has applied his knowledge in evolutionary ecology to the understanding of evolution of antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments. He is and has been active in collaborating with researchers in pan-European and international working groups and networks (e.g. COST Actions, NORMAN). For example, till recently he was the Vice-Leader of Working Group 1 of EU COST Action 1403; This group has worked on the topic of the ‘Microbiome and mobile antibiotic resistome in treated wastewater and in downstream environments’. He is also the Director of Research for the EU ANSWER project – “ANtibioticS and mobile resistance elements in WastEwater Reuse applications: risks and innovative solutions”.