Spotlight March 2022: Safe Materials from Scratch – Safe-by-Design-Concept in action

Home > Spotlight March 2022: Safe Materials from Scratch – Safe-by-Design-Concept in action

In recent decades, German research on nanomaterials and new, innovative materials has been widely expanded by material safety aspects. European initiatives also pay significant attention to this: both the European Union (EU) Green Deal, and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) aim to create a sustainable, climate-neutral economy with sustainable and safe chemicals and products, while better protecting human health and the environment. The focus is on fostering innovation while addressing global challenges.

The Safe-by-Design (SbD) strategy for nanomaterials and innovative materials is one approach to address precisely these challenges (see also Spotlight Research of November 2021). Risks to humans and the environment should ideally be identified, assessed, and reduced on an early stage of the development process. The European Horizon 2020 project NanoRegII also deals with safe-by-design and is the first project that has now conducted a practical test of the safe-by-design concept. The NanoRegII safe-by-design strategy was implemented at six companies. The experience gained was then evaluated and guidelines for practical implementation of the safe-by-design strategy for the future were developed. In addition to being informative, the guidelines also contain several tools that are intended to help identify risks at an early stage. This should enable an assessment at each step in the innovation process as to whether the innovation should be continued and, if so, which safe-by-design measures need to be further applied to reduce uncertainties. The guidelines thus offer a first approach that can be adapted by each company to its specific requirements for innovation.

 

Original Publication:

Sánchez Jiménez, A. et al 2022 Safe(r) by design guidelines for the nanotechnology industry. NanoImpact 25, 100385.

 

Spotlight March 2022: Safe Materials from Scratch – Safe-by-Design-Concept in action

Weitere Spotlights


Spotlight August 2021: Towards FAIR nanosafety data

Spotlight August 2021: Towards FAIR nanosafety data

In August we would like to present a paper on FAIR data. The paper published in Nature Nanotechnology in June 2021 summarises the challenges and provides recommendations for the efficient reuse of nanosafety data in line with the recently established FAIR guiding principles: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. This article summarises the know-how on the […]

Read more

Spotlight October 2021: Nanopesticides – a proposal for a risk assessment framework

Spotlight October 2021: Nanopesticides – a proposal for a risk assessment framework

The application of so-called “nanopesticides” (see also cross-sectional text Nanomaterials in plant protection products) is said to have two basic advantages: a smaller amount of pesticide is needed for the same agricultural area and the efficacy is improved. This is necessary to grow enough food for a still growing world population. However, this could also […]

Read more

Spotlight June 2022: From small to clever – What does the future hold for the safety and sustainability of advanced materials?

Spotlight June 2022: From small to clever – What does the future hold for the safety and sustainability of advanced materials?

The smallest particles in materials research, nanoparticles, have occupied us intensively for more than 20 years to elucidate and further investigate their safety for humans and the environment. Now, however, the development is going from “small = nano” to “clever = advanced”, as discussed in a contribution by international scientists. Thereby, it is a great […]

Read more

Spotlight July 2021: The Path to Digital Material Research – It is never too late to start

Spotlight July 2021: The Path to Digital Material Research – It is never too late to start

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data…. Have you read these words lately? No, these are not just buzzwords. The digitalisation of science is an evolving topic that is gaining importance with each passing day. That is why this month we would like to introduce you to the article “Digital Transformation in Materials Science: A Paradigm […]

Read more

Skip to content