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.