A significant challenge to ensuring sustainable production and use of nanotechnologies is to understand safety and health risks of the technology and its end-products, and to implement practical strategies to manage these risks. Knowledge is growing rapidly, but effective use of this knowledge for risk management is lagging behind. We therefore need to bridge the gap between knowledge on hazard and risk, and ‘fit-for-purpose’ risk management tools and strategies supported by measurement and control methods.
EC4SafeNano will bridge this gap in an efficient and sustainable way by setting up an independent, science-based, managed Centre (hub) linked with several networks (spokes) to act at the interface between research organisations, industry, regulatory bodies, and civil society.
The objectives are to: 1) understand the needs of all stakeholders along the innovation value chain for nanotechnologies, ensuring safer, marketable, regulated and accepted long-lived products; 2) identify the resources and capabilities available to address these needs, and evaluate the capacity to provide technical solutions and actions; 3) build, test and benchmark a range of services, based on selected resources that answer stakeholder needs across the innovation value chain; 4) develop mechanisms and operating procedures to facilitate periodic updating of the “needs and resources” mapping and of the service provision; 5) develop networking activities aiming to share, benchmark and promote the EC4SafeNano services thereby enhancing and harmonizing the overall expertise, at EU level and beyond; and 6) develop governance rules and a strategic plan to prepare for self-sufficient operation beyond the project lifetime.
The main outcome is the definition of a legal entity with operating procedures, gathering, integrating and sharing available technology, tools, skills and processes and promoting services and capabilities to support stakeholder needs in risk management and safe innovation.