Safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials for Europe’s green transition
The European Commission’s ‘safe and sustainable by design’ framework (SSbD) is a voluntary approach to guide the innovation process for chemicals and materials. It aims to minimise the impact of chemicals, materials and products on health, climate and the environment during sourcing, production, use and end-of-life. The approach is especially relevant in the development of chemicals and advanced materials, the latter being intentionally designed and engineered substances and materials with innovative properties and functionalities. The objective of SSbD materials research and innovation is to cement EU leadership in the green transition industrial policy. Doing so will secure a strong position on the respective high-growth global markets by stimulating scientific and technological advancements, investment using the SSbD framework when developing new chemicals and materials, as well as their uptake in high added-value, competitive products and services across a range of applications and sectors. This Pack showcases the results of 10 Research and Innovation (RIA) and one Coordination and Support Action (CSA) Horizon-funded projects, centred on high-performance chemicals and materials designed and developed using the SSbD framework as an innovation guide. The collection demonstrates the potential of the chemicals and materials to ensure safe and sustainable industrial production, securing resilience and innovation potential in a number of industrial sectors critical for European autonomy, including medicine, advanced manufacturing (automotive and machinery), textile and energy. The selected projects reflect efforts undertaken at EU level to ensure the elaboration of tools and advanced knowledge for SSbD approaches, particularly the development of multi-component advanced materials-enabled products, such as functional nanocoatings. Europe’s aim is to secure and increase its position in the global market by promoting widescale cooperation in and across many different value chains alongside different industrial sectors. Doing so will realise the scale-up of these technologies into viable commercial products. To support this change, the IRISS project – highlighted in this Pack – aims to foster a SSbD community in Europe and globally. Already, more than 350 representatives from industries such as textiles, electronics and automotive have joined to promote the development of the SSbD ecosystem. These and more flagship projects within Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe are spearheading the global developments in SSbD, ensuring the long-term resilience of the European industrial and manufacturing value chains, and furthering the ambitious objectives of the EU green transition strategy.