NSC Update 06 / 2025

GENERAL NEWS

Welcome Fiorella as ECR representative

We are pleased to welcome Fiorella Pitaro in her new role leading the NSC Early Career Researchers' (ECR) community.

Read her welcome words to the NSC community here!

Malopolska declaration & Recap of EUIndTech2025

On June 2nd, the NSC organised an SSbD session at the EUIndTech2025 in Krakow, Poland. Under the title “Designing Safe and Sustainable Materials and Chemicals – SSbD Implementation and Digitalization”, the session, organised by Andreas Falk (BNN, and member of NSC coordination team) and moderated by Martin Himly (PLUS and chair of the NSC working group on Training) addressed the importance of integrated approaches, data-related expectations, advantages, challenges for ultimately balancing ecological and economic goals for a more sustainable future.

The main outputs of the session have been summarised in the so-called Malopolska declaration.

Additionally, several NSC sister projects had a joint booth with posters promoting the cross-project collaboration.

Read all about it here.

Short recap from the Venice School 2025

The 13th Venice Training School took place from 9–13 June 2025 as a joint effort of the EU-funded projects AlChemiSSts, BIOSAFIRE, CheMatSustain, CHIASMA, DESIDERATA, EuMINe Cost Action, INSIGHT, INTEGRANO, MACRAMÉ, PINK, PLANETS, POTENTIAL, REPOXYBLE, SiToLub, SSbD4CheM, SUNRISE, SUPREME, SURPASS, supported by the Ca' Foscari University Venice, and had the NSC as a special partner.

Entitled "Innovating with Purpose: A Hands-on Journey into Functional, Safe and Sustainable Advanced Materials", this edition aimed to advance theoretical knowledge and practical skills in Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) assessment and decision-making for advanced materials and chemicals.

Over 100 participants from 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and America joined the event, which featured interesting lectures and practical hands-on sessions prepared by 44 lecturers and instructors from 35 organisations in 14 European countries. The sessions aimed to foster an integrative understanding of the school's topics, providing an interactive learning environment and direct access to key experts.

Here are some numbers about the background of our participants: 32% postdoctoral and senior researchers, 17% PhD students, 3% master students, 13% consultants, 13% SME CEOs & managers, 3% technical staff, 5% University professors, 3% R&D specialists, 2% laboratory heads, etc., as well as representatives of the European Commission.

Special thanks go to Susanne Resch and Beatriz Alfaro (BNN), Paola Basso, Marilena Uliana and Danail Hristozov (Greendecision), Yasemin Ertugrul and Judith Friesl (Yordas), Stefania Melandri & Giulia Mora (Warrant Hub), Martin Himly (PLUS) and all the members of the organising and scientific committees for making this edition of the school such a huge success!

Stay tuned for the final report and materials from the school, which will be made publicly available soon.

Recap of the NSC workshop on SSbD scenarios on 23 June 2025

On 23 June 2025, the NSC Working Group on Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD), Innovation & Regulation organised an online workshop on “SSbD scenarios for advanced and incremental innovations” as a collaboration effort among several EU-funded projects: AlChemiSSts, DESIDERATA, PLANETS and SUNRISE.

Not all innovation scenarios in SMEs and industry are the same. Current JRC SSbD guidance and also the Portfolio Sustainability Assessment (PSA) / Cefic concepts leave room for tailoring the SSbD approach within a tiered framework. Scenarios support the tailoring, such that SSbD is not just another burden, but increases overall competitiveness.

But how should an SSbD scenario be described? This was exactly the aim of this first workshop.

The workshop tested aspects that described a scenario by knowledge that is available at early innovation stages withreal-world cases kindly provided by innovators from the projects AlChemiSSts, DESIDERATA, PLANETS and SUNRISE. Shortlisted aspects included the professional environment (start-up, SME or industry), the sector of application (B2B vs B2C), the innovative height (incremental or advanced), R&D project budget, and other aspects that would be known to the innovator before starting any lab work.

Read the whole report here.

Workshop materials are publicly available in Zenodo, under DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15756155.

The recording of the workshop is available in the NSC YouTube channel.

BNN QUARTERLY 02/2025 is out!

Read through the BNN QUARTERLY 02/2025 issue, focused on "Digital Transition for Innovative Technologies", with research news, an article about the NSC participation in the EUIndTech2025 and updates on many NSC projects (InnoMatSyn, HARMLESS, PLANETS, SSbD4CheM, DIAGONAL, IRISS, etc.).

Enjoy reading it here.

PARC Knowledge Sharing Portal on SSbD has been launched

The PARC SSbD Knowledge Sharing Portal has been launched by the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC).

This new central portal is now available to support the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) community with practical resources, access to tools and educational materials, expert guidance, as well as a dedicated space for collaboration and knowledge exchange among stakeholders.

Access the SSbD Knowledge Sharing Portal here.

News form NIA: Bridging the Governance Gap

The Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) has released a new position paper, "Bridging the Governance Gap", highlighting industry challenges with divergent EU approaches to nano and advanced materials.

Read the whole press release here.

Interviews series with SSbD4CheM's WP leaders

Get to know SSbD4CheM's work package leaders: their expertise, how their WP contributes to the project, and their personal opinion about who will benefit the most from the project:

• Wouter Gebbink (VITO), leading the WP on exposure assessment and risk management of chemicals.
• Ivana Burzic (WOOD K plus), leading the WP dealing with the development and validation of novel materials for the three case studies, with fulfilled sustainability and safety aspects.
• Fruéla Pérez Sánchez (ITENE), leading the WP on the sustainability assessment across the LCA.

Explore the brand-new PLANETS flyer

We are glad to present the flyer from the EU-funded project PLANETS highlighting their SSbD approach, presenting their case studies and their partners!!

Curious? Have a look here.

iCare newsletter is out - June 2025 edition!

Read all news from the iCare project in their June 2025 newsletter with inforrmation on the project progress, research highlights and recaps of events.

Read it here.

Scoping survey on Safety and Sustainability Trade-Offs from the SUNRISE project

SUNRISE has just launched a scoping survey to explore perceptions, decision-making processes, and factors affecting/influencing the potential safety and sustainability trade-offs along various sectors.

Take the survey here.

Announcement: 2nd NSC workshop on SSbD Scenarios in Autumn 2025!

Following on from the first NSC workshop on “SSbD scenarios for advanced and incremental innovations”, which took place on 23 June, the NSC Working Group on SSbD will organise a second workshop on 24 October 2025 from 12:00 to 15:00, where they will present “archetypical SSbD scenarios” and their tailored SSbD approaches!

Save-the-date and stay tuned for more information soon!

OECD Update: New, updated and corrected Test Guidelines!

56 new, updated and corrected Test Guidelines (in English and French) were published on 25 June 2025. These guidelines ensure that testing keeps pace with scientific progress and promote best practices in chemical testing, in line with the Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experimentation (3Rs) Principles, and that data generated are covered by Mutual Acceptance across members and adhering countries.

Read it here.

New JRC publication

We would like to share with you a new publication from the JRC:

Safe and Sustainable by Design: driving innovation towards safer and more sustainable chemicals, materials, processes and products

DOI: 10.1055/a-2636-1704

Abstract: The Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework integrates safety and sustainability throughout the innovation process in a holistic manner. It supports the (re)design of chemicals, materials, processes, and products by combining Risk Assessment (RA) and Sustainability Assessment (SA) with a life-cycle perspective driving innovation towards safer and more sustainable solutions. It is a collective effort and responsibility across the value chain and it represents a paradigm change in innovation and is a key element for achieving the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability goals.

New OECD publication

We would like to share with you a new publication from the OECD:

Building Trust and Enhancing Dialogue for Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Innovation: Developing Tools to Enhance Trusted Environments

DOI: 10.1787/c17d0c0e-en

Abstract: This document introduces tools designed to enhance the establishment of Trusted Environments (TE), aiming to foster collaboration between innovators and regulators from the earliest stages of the innovation process. The purpose is to avoid concerns at the initial market- stage and to encourage the adoption of Safe(r) and Sustainable Innovation Approach principles right from the concept-to-design stage, encompassing the entire product life cycle. Additionally, it contains best practices principles for establishing a collaborative dialogue among innovators to create a TE.

Recap from the DPP4EU conference!

The DPP4EU conference took place in Brussels from 16 to 18 June, focusing on digitalisation, digital product passports (DPPs) and the sharing of material and product information and data for sustainability and circularity.

Designed as a forum for experts from EU-funded initiatives, this clustering event provided a space for the exchange of insights regarding the technical implementation of Digital Product Passports, the role of IT infrastructures, the implications for digital manufacturing, the correlations with Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) frameworks, and digital business models.

Statement from the ROMFS WG: we really hope that Digital Product Passports, and perhaps even Digital Material Passports, will have a positive effect on SSbD. However, this will only become a reality if they provide access to relevant safety, sustainability, and circularity data.

• Introduction to the PARC SSbD Toolbox, 3 July 2025, 11:00 - 12:30h CEST, online – PARC invites you to a dedicated online workshop introducing the alpha version of the PARC Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) toolbox, a practical toolset to support the implementation of the EC’s SSbD framework. Registration and more information here.
• Webinar “Nano and Beyond – What Can We Learn from Nano for Other Innovative Advanced Materials?”, 4 July 2025, 10:00 - 13:00h CEST, online – Topic highlights are IAM4EU, Advanced Materials, Digital Product Passports, and more! This webinar is organised by the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), with speakers from BAM, IAM-IA, Evonik, EMPA, Edelweiss Connect, BNN. Registration and more information here. Webinar is free, but registration is necessary.
• 22nd International Conference on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (NN25), 8-11 July 2025, Thessaloniki, Greece – On 10 July 2025 (10:00 - 13:00 EEST), as part of the NN25, the NSC will run a session on SSbD and nano-to-advanced materials.
• SENTIATECH Congress, 21-22 October 2025, Valencia, Spain – Submit your abstract by July 13th.
• 2nd NSC workshop on SSbD Scenarios, 24 October 2025, 12:00 - 15:00h CEST, online – Save-the-date and stay tuned for more information soon!
• Second Expert Workshop of the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) on Nanocarriers - Needs for methodological adaptation for safety assessment of Nanocarriers, 5-6 November 2025, Vienna, Austria & online – Organised by BOKU University and German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA).
• SSbD25 Conference, 10-12 November 2025, Zurich, Switzerland – Deadline for abstracts, 15 July. The registration for the conference will open in September 2025.
• SafePlastChem conference, 25-30 January 2026, Monte Verità, Switzerland – Deadline for abstracts, 30 September. Specific timeslots will be reserved for Early Career Scientists.

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Furthermore, we ask you to report your project related citable research output. Supported output includes journal articles, project deliverables, data, software releases, books and book chapters, and basically anything else with a DOI. You can get a DOI with online repositories like Zenodo (presentations, data, software, preprints, etc). This has the added benefit that you can link this research output via OpenAIRE to your EU grant in CORDIS. Get listed on the NSC website by sending us the citation of your publications to [email protected].

If you would like to send us any news and events for the NSC website and/or for the monthly NSC update, please send them to [email protected](including all your pictures in 1280x720 as attachment (.PNG or .JPG) by 21 August 2025, 12:00 p.m. CEST at the latest. As mentioned in the introduction, there won't be an NSC Update in July, due to the much-needed summer break.