Why does the EU support research and innovation for advanced materials and chemicals?
Emphasising the importance of research and innovation to achieve the Zero Pollution Ambition of the Green Deal, the Commission published a report on how results from Horizon 2020 projects contribute to the nince flagships of the Zero Pollution Action Plan.
Advanced materials and chemicals are essential for the well-being, high living standards and comfort of modern society. Advanced materials are considered to be a Key Enabling Technology. They are used in many sectors (e.g. health, energy, mobility and housing) in products such as consumer goods, construction materials, cleaning products, cosmetics and more.
Advanced materials, including nanomaterials, are designed with a purpose to have novel or enhanced properties and improve performance over conventional materials in products and processes. Europe is strong in developing advanced materials. However, new opportunities need to be seized to safeguard industrial leadership and a strategic autonomy.
On 7 February 2022, a Materials 2030 Manifesto was presented by high-level representatives from European research institutes and industries to Commissioner Gabriel. It stressed the importance of EU’s technology leaderships, strategic autonomy and the role of advanced materials. It invites stakeholders to combine more closely upstream research with industry driven applications in innovation markets.
Building on the vision of the Materials 2030 Manifesto, on 22 June, the ‘Materials 2030 Roadmap’ was published. The goal of this Roadmap is to pave the way for the engagement of all advanced materials stakeholders and co-create the European materials agenda with R&I stakeholders.
Research and innovation is a tool to increase and ensure safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials throughout their lifecycle.
The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability announces 2 main activities for 2022:
- Safe and Sustainable by Design criteria
- Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials
Advanced Materials
The Commission recognises challenges and opportunities highlighted in Materials 2030 Manifesto and will engage in dedicated follow-up actions.
The manifesto underlines 4 challenges and opportunities for further research on advanced materials:
- safeguarding EU’s technology leadership
- reduction of environmental footprint by using advanced materials
- securing strategic autonomy
- targeting advanced materials innovation markets
It calls for a strong European materials ecosystem with enhanced collaboration of upstream developers, downstream users and citizens and all stakeholders in between. The manifesto highlights 9 new markets emerging from implementing the Green Deal (so called innovation markets) to drive research on advanced materials.
The signatories to the Materials 2030 Manifesto have been working with four major European Technology Platforms (EMIRI, EuMAT, MANUFUTURE and SUSCHEM) towards an open roadmap which was presented at the Industrial Technology Conference in 2022.
Most of the key enabling technologies referred to in the EU’s Industrial Strategy for Europe are to some extent based on future generation nanomaterials. There is however still a knowledge gap about the safety of nanomaterials for human and environmental health as well as lack of methods to assess this.
The European Commission has been supporting the safety evaluation of nanomaterials field by different actions: the European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON), the EU NanoSafety Cluster and the Malta Initiative supporting the work of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on nanomaterials standardization and risk assessment.
The international collaboration includes among others the work via 7 Communities of Research (CORs) on environmental, health and safety aspects of nanomaterials and one on nanomanufacturing established within the EU and US.
Workshop
On 11 January, 2023, the European Commission organised a half-day workshop to present a draft strategic agenda for advanced materials initiative (AMI) and to facilitate the discussion between AMI representatives and the national stakeholders.
An overview of initiative, its expected benefits and future actions can be consulted in the presentation.
Expert Group on Advanced Materials
The mission of the group is to deepen cooperation between Member States, Associated States and the Commission in advanced materials.
This group will contribute to the mapping and gap analysis of current actions and innovation at regional and national level as well as Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe projects. It will investigate smart specialisation strategies, national infrastructure roadmaps and structural funds.
The group will focus on research and innovation activities relevant to materials, products and chemicals to fulfil the concept of safe and sustainable by design.
Safe and Sustainable by Design Framework
The ‘safe and sustainable by design’ framework (Commission Recommendation on the assessment framework for ‘safe and sustainable by design’ chemicals and materials and Annex) first announced in the 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, provides companies, authorities and scientists guidance on the design and assessment of chemicals and materials throughout the innovation process taking account the needed functionality and end use. It considers safety and sustainability throughout the whole lifecycle of chemicals and materials with the aim is to ensure the lowest possible impact on our environment, health and biodiversity. The framework can be applied to develop new chemicals and materials or to redesign existing ones.
The Commission invites Member States, industry, academia and research and technology organisations to use the framework in their R&I activities’ so that the development of safer and more sustainable substances will speed up in the EU and globally.
Be a best mover on sustainability, join the testing of the framework [link to webinar] in 2023 and 2024 and share your findings with the Commission!
To register as stakeholder, receive news on the progress and invitations to future events please fill in this form.
Please find the latest publications on this subject in the documents section.
Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for Chemicals and Materials (SRIP)
The SRIP report, first announced in the 2020 Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, identifies research and innovation areas crucial for boosting the transition to chemicals and materials that are safe and sustainable. It provides a comprehensive outlook of research and innovation needs from production to (re)use, disposal and the decontamination of our environment. The SRIP also provides guidance on cross-cutting for how to make the most of such research and innovation activities.
The aim of SRIP is to encourage and guide funders in EU, national and private financial programmes. It reflects the priorities of authorities, scientists and companies alike.
SRIP report interactive presentation
Please find the latest publications on this subject in the documents section.
Horizon European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC)
The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals supports innovation in chemical risk assessment, while the Processes4Planet partnership addresses sustainable production processes in the chemical sector. It is a co-funded Horizon Europe partnership with a total budget of €400 million for 7 years starting in May 2022.
The aim of the partnership is to establish an EU-wide research and innovation programme to support EU and national chemical risk assessment and risk management bodies with new data, methods, networks and skills to address current, emerging and novel chemical safety challenges.
Documents
Safe and sustainable
The SRIP sets out an overarching plan addressing R&I needs across the lifecycle of chemicals and materials to achieve the goals of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) and the overall societal transition as envisioned by the Green Deal and the related policy initiatives.
Advanced Materials
Latest
Recommendation for safe and sustainable chemicals published
Research and innovation news alert: Today, the Commission adopted a recommendation and its annex to promote research and innovation for safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials as an important step to increase the protection of human health and the environment against hazardous substances.
Guidance for safe and sustainable chemicals and materials published
Research and innovation news alert: Today the European Commission published a Strategic Research and Innovation Plan (SRIP) to accelerate the shift to safe and sustainable chemicals and materials.