Description of work & main achievements. Summary Through an extensive literature review and dedicated dialogue workshops with nanosafety researchers, this work has produced an integrated review of social and technical challenges facing the safety assessment of MNMs through the value chain. In addition to providing this easy to read overview of existing challenges, it critically reviews some of the strategies for 1 In this deliverable our use of the term safety assessment includes formal assessments of risk. The term safety assessment was deemed preferable to that of risk assessment (in some cases) both because of the way it opens for an inclusion of broader factors than may be accounted for in formal risk assessment models, but also because of the way it frames the assessment in a more positive light, focusing on safety rather than risk. This means that the term risk assessment is used when referring to the use of specific formal processes of risk analysis, while safety assessment is used as a more general term for a range of activities performed in the interest of ensuring product safety. tackling these, including both new technical approaches to scientific safety testing and new socio-political approaches to management and governance. It concludes that while new approaches to safety testing offer some significant advantages for safety assessment, there remains a need to find ways to move forward responsibly in the face of various forms of uncertainties. Here the work critically reviews the new approaches to management and governance of Safe-by-Design and Responsible Research and Innovation and offers a novel integration of the two with the stage gate model of innovation. This is specifically so as to advance the European commitment to having nanotechnology development that is both safe and responsible. The take home lessons from this work are that both technical and social (including political and economic) factors are creating significant bottlenecks for the ability of nanosafety science to deliver reliable answers to the regulatory questions identified and prioritised within NANoREG. Furthermore, since it will not be possible to eliminate uncertainties completely, new approaches to governance that are foresighted, flexible, transparent and broadly collaborative will be needed for the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology and can be integrated into a synthesis model. The interdisciplinary approach in this work, which seeks to illuminate both social and technical factors affecting ...
Description of work & main achievements. 2.1 Summary There is an ongoing growth in Nanotechnology where manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) are more often coming into contact with humans and the environment. The interface between any type of nanomaterial with the surrounding environment either proteins/cells in a culture medium or bound to a matrix/composite or in a solvent depends on colloidal forces as well as dynamic biophysicochemical interactions. The development of predictive relationships between structure (key parameter) of nanomaterials and activity (functionality) are determined by nanomaterial properties such as size, shape, surface chemistry, aggregation, and the test medium. The understanding of these relationships is very important from the perspective of safe use of nano materials. It is not possible to describe all the biophysicochemical interactions at the interface, but we made an effort to assemble knowledge and information to provide a framework to guide this exploration. D6.6 is part of the NANoREG project aimed to provide some consensus on which key parameters of MNMs affect specific functionalities in an attempt to establish a relation between them and to propose a workable decision tree. This is one of the first attempts to identify the main key properties of the MNMs that in relation to their functionalities play a dominant role on the safe by design concept. This proposed data model is considered as one of the possible approaches towards a decision tree strategy for (re)designing safe MNMs for humans and the environment. The optimal design of safe nanomaterials is a challenge with multiple compromises between functionality and safety characteristics.
Description of work & main achievements. Within this first year of the project, we established the protocols for preparation of functionalized PEDOT/biopolymer dispersions and new semiconjugated polymers. The main achievements were: o Scale-up synthesis up to 1 L of PEDOT/biopolymer dispersons which is applicable to many different types of biopolymers o Development of a new cationic PEDOT derivative, PEDOT-N which is water soluble and can be used to develop new ionogels. o Synthesis of new hydroxyl functional P3HT semiconducting type polymer derivatives. 4 Deviations from the workplan The work was carried out without deviations from the workplan.
Description of work & main achievements. The delivery date of D6.1 is set in M2, which allows for an early start of the dissemination activities and enhances both external visibility and communication between partners. The project website is implemented so as to provide open access to a public sector and a password-protected intranet for a restricted partner only access. A characteristic logo was also designed so that an easily recognizable trademark is created and used throughout the communication and dissemination activities
Description of work & main achievements
