The departing point of the project “IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE METHODS FOR SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENTS OF CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS PARTICULARLY AT NANO LEVEL IN THE EUROPEAN UNION (CheMatSustain)” within the Call (HORIZON-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01-21), is the need to develop new methods to support the improvement of safety and sustainability assessment. In particular, for safety assessment, e.g. human and eco-toxicity, there is a lack of validated in vitro and in silico tools for a variety of substances and materials. Likewise, the development of robust, reliable, and faster test methods or models, including high-throughput and in silico models, are needed to improve and harmonise screening and testing protocols/strategies and hazard/risk assessments. In addition, new and improved approaches to increase the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of existing sustainability methods and robust life cycle assessment are also needed.
The overall objective of the project CheMatSustain is to identify, develop, test and deploy a set of tools to improve and harmonise screening and testing protocols, strategies, and hazard, risk and sustainability assessments of a sample of chemicals and (nano)materials in the European Union by developing robust, reliable and fast (test) methods and models, including high-throughput and in silico models, with the goal of improving their safety and sustainability.
To attain the overall objective, CheMatSustain will operate through eight specific objectives (SOs) that are closely aligned with the work packages (WPs):
SO1- To identify and select four sets of chemicals, advanced groups of chemicals and/or materials/(nano)materials (CNMs) that will be tested in respect of chemical and physical attributes which will ultimately improve their safety and sustainability (Means of delivery: WP2).
SO2- To undertake appropriate pilot experiments and more realistic in vitro models to address current gaps in the field of chemicals/(nano)materials (CNMs) hazards assessment (Means of delivery: WP3).
SO3- To perform high-resolution analysis of the selected chemicals/(nano)materials (CNMs) for a quantification and characterisation through photoelectron spectroscopy (Means of delivery: WP4).
SO4- To deliver reliable data supported by computational modelling in order to allow the development of grouping and Read-Across methods (Means of delivery: WP5, WP7).
SO5- To evaluate the sustainability of the selected chemicals/(nano)materials (CNMs) by means of assessing environmental and socio-economic aspects covering their entire life cycle (Means of delivery: WP6).
SO6- To develop harmonised standardised test methods that can be used in a regulatory framework including test hazard assessment, and sustainability for chemicals/(nano)materials (CNMs) (Means of delivery: WP7).
SO7- To increase the efficiency and effectiveness in the development of chemicals/(nano)materials (CNMs) by reducing costs and time for product design, time-to-market, and regulatory compliance (Means of delivery: WP6, WP8).
SO8- To foster the uptake of the new methods among academia, public authorities, and the private sector (Means of delivery: WP7, WP8).
