Presenting the December 2023 edition of the SUNSHINE Newsletter!

As we approach the end of another impactful year, we're delighted to bring you the latest updates from our project. This issue also aims to highlight the remarkable events in which SUNSHINE has been actively involved and those that are on our horizon.

Enjoy reading and happy 2024 ahead!

Updates from SUNSHINE Work Packages (WPs)

SSbD Approach 

The tiered SUNSHINE Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) approach has been published

Tier 1 of the SUNSHINE approach evaluates safety, environmental and socio-economic impacts and functionality through a qualitative questionnaire and integrates the results in an overall sustainability index using a scoring procedure. This tier is intended to identify 'hotspots of concerns' already in the early stages of innovation and at low technology readiness levels. These ‘hotspots’ are then further evaluated using higher-tier methods for safety and sustainability assessment such as regulatory risk assessment, Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment as well as Life Cycle Costing.

SUNSHINE and OECD join forces for advanced material safety and governance

The SUNSHINE Tier 1 methodology has been presented in the frame of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ‘Advanced Materials’ Steering Group which proposed the “Early Awareness and Action System for Advanced Materials (Early4AdMa): Pre-regulatory and anticipatory risk governance tool to Advanced Materials“. Early4AdMa is a systematic approach developed for regulators and policy makers to facilitate early identification of emerging risks and regulatory issues of novel advanced materials.

Early4AdMa and the SUNSHINE Tier 1 methodology are complementary as the SUNSHINE approach was developed to support industries, especially SMEs, in designing new advanced materials already in the very early stages of innovation. Therefore, it has been agreed to collaboratively apply these two methodologies to 2 case study materials from the SUNSHINE project. The aim is to identify similarities and complementarities, refine the targeting of both approaches for relevant users, and pinpoint future areas for collaboration within the framework of the OECD Working Party for Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN). This joint effort is scheduled to take place from July 2023 to April 2024.

Foresight Framework

The SUNSHINE Foresight Framework Workshop to better anticipate safety and sustainability issues of advanced materials

The SUNSHINE foresight framework is being developed as part of a systematic approach to identify emerging safety and sustainability issues of advanced materials as the first step of the early awareness and action system for advanced materials (Early4AdMa). The Foresight Framework will be supported by relevant publications such as  advanced materials foresight analysis. A workshop to refine the SUNSHINE foresight framework was held on 20 November 2023. The biggest identified challenge was how to identify weak signals with potential safety and sustainability issues for advanced materials. A lot of the discussion also dealt with the process and infrastructure: who will pay and host the systematic foresight system, and how to build a ‘trusted environment’ where material innovators are willing to share information?

Identification of emerging safety and sustainability issues of advanced materials: Proposal for a systematic approach. Adapted from Peijnenburg et al. 2021; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.impact.2021.100342  

Regulatory Preparedness in practice: Presentations of gap analysis at the German authorities and the ECHA Nanomaterials Expert Group

A key SUNSHINE Deliverable report (D6.1) showed a first analysis on how different EU regulations such as REACH, Biocidal Products, Cosmetic Products, Plant Protection Products, Novel Foods and Food Contact Materials, Medical Devices, and Medicinal Products for Human and Veterinary Use, may cover potential aspects concerning risks and safety of multi-component nanomaterials (MCNMs). The identified potential issues and information gaps for REACH were presented to the German Interagency Group (13 November 2023) and the ECHA Nanomaterial Expert Group (21 November 2023).
 

In particular for the REACH regulation, this first analysis has highlighted a number of challenges that are intrinsically related to the understanding and interpretation of the rather broad working SUNSHINE definition of the term 'multi-component nanomaterials’ and the fact that a regulatory definition is not existing. For example, some types of MCNMs do not fulfil the general requirements of the EU regulatory definition of nanomaterial (Recommendation 2022/C 229/01) which makes a direct and meaningful comparison with the nanomaterial-specific regulatory requirements from sectoral legislation very difficult. For REACH, it is not always clear and easy to distinguish whether a given MCNM is a nanoform (of a substance) or a mixture (of two or more substances). These and more scientific findings and challenges are further discussed in a series of manuscripts to be submitted for peer review.

WP7 – International collaboration for global impact

Spotlight on the SUNSHINE International Collaboration Activities

→ Collaboration with Duke University

Greendecision (Italy): Dt.ssa Arianna Livieri and Dr. Danail Hristozov

Duke Univeristy (USA): Professor Mark Wiesner

Background
Though nanomaterials have been studied for a long time, there are still significant engineering challenges preventing their effective use in fully printed all-carbon recyclable electronics (ACRE). To make significant advances and develop more sustainable manufacturing technologies, a multidisciplinary effort is required. To support this, SUNSHINE is collaborating with the LEAP-HI project, bringing sustainability assessment expertise in a team of engineering researchers who will focus on the discovery and development of ACRE materials and processes to revolutionize the electronic display manufacturing sector. As the required performance for targeted devices in this sector is within reach and the need for reduction in high GHG manufacturing is substantial, this is a realistic target for printed nanomaterials to transform.

→ Collaboration with with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

UNIVE (Italy): Dr Andrea Brunelli and Prof. Antonio Marcomini
CSIC (Spain): Professor Josè F. Fernandez
ENCAPSULAE (Spain): Dr Javier Menéndez, Dr Castor Salgado
CAES (US): Dr Jason C. White, Dr Quan Zen

Background
The application of nanotechnology in agriculture is a promising tool to address challenges in food production. Conventional agricultural practices include extensive loads of agrichemicals to cope with the high incidence of disease among other food crops’ stressors. Unfortunately, the use of these agrichemicals is very inefficient, often with less than 10% being utilized by plants. Therefore, growers need to overapply amounts of fertilizers and pesticides to ensure desired performance or to use unsustainable measures such as antibiotics in fruit trees to control bacterial diseases. Nano-formulations represent an option to reduce the utilization of conventional agrochemicals. In this context, nanomaterials can be effective and sustainable sources of nutrients or can be carriers of active ingredients that trigger a response in the host, for example to inhibit replication of microorganisms like bacteria.

SUNSHINE welcomed The Korea Institute of Toxicology (KIT) as an official partner. KIT is a government-funded research institute, established in 2002 as the first accredited GLP system in South Korea. KIT conducts non-clinical studies to evaluate the safety of various chemical and biological materials. Currently KIT participates in WP2 in SUNSHINE to conduct inhalation study on nanomaterials. Moreover, KIT is working on development of alternative animal test methods based on in vitro assay and in silico models. For nanotoxicity prediction, KIT developed NanoToxRadar (https://www.kitox.re.kr/nanotoxradar/) to predict toxicity of nanomaterials in various composition and sizes.

Stakeholder engagement, training, dissemination and exploitation of results

SUNSHINE events and collaboration with HARMLESS and DIAGONAL

SUNSHINE had an exciting period of hosting outreach events and contributing to high impact international events by giving expert talks. These events served as excellent platforms to disseminate the project's developments to date but also to engage in discussions and co-creation with our key stakeholders on various topics in the SUNSHINE research pipeline.

On 20 November 2023, a focused workshop was organised on the SUNSHINE Foresight Framework where 35+ key stakeholders from regulation, industry and academia gathered together to discuss and give constructive feedback on the presented framework.

A number of high impact events allowed SUNSHINE experts to showcase various results and engage in collaborative dialogue to further our knowledge on SSbD of advanced materials:

♦ Dr Neil Hunt presented a key SUNSHINE deliverable identifying potential issues and information gaps for REACH to the German Interagency Group on 13 November 2023 and the ECHA Nanomaterial Expert Group on 21 November 2023. 
♦ Dr Lisa Pizzol and Dr Danail Hristozov are active participants in the OECD ‘Advanced Materials’ Steering Group meetings and in a collaborative joint work to test the SUNSHINE SSbD and Early4Adma approaches in case studies.

Featured Upcoming Events

Get ready for NanoTox 2024!

SUNSHINE is teaming up to co-organize the highly anticipated NanoTox 2024 event, set to take place in Venice on September 23-25, 2024.

Registrations will open soon. While you're gearing up, express your interest through our event website. Sign up for our mailing list to stay in the loop and get immediate updates about Nanotox 2024! 

ANTHOS 2024

Advanced (Nano)Materials and Technologies: Science, Research & Innovation for Safety and Sustainability 

This summit brings together top experts in Safe-by-Design (SbD) and Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) from H2020 and Horizon Europe initiatives. SUNSHINE actively collaborates, contributing expertise for a safer, sustainable future.

SUNSHINE presented at COP28 UAE

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP28 UAE (Conference of the Parties), is a crucial event in the ongoing global efforts to address climate change. At SUNSHINE, we are committed to sustainability research and are excited to announce that SUNSHINE was presented at COP28.