Multidimensional Integrated Quantitative Approach To Assess Safety And Sustainability Of Nanomaterials In Real Case Life Cycle Scenarios Using Nanospecific Impact Categories

In line with the current guidelines for Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals and materials, INTEGRANO proposes a general assessment approach based on quantitative evidence to be applied in practice for specific Nano Materials (NMs) design cases referred to inorganic, organic and carbon NMs.

The development NMs dedicated novel impact categories (ICs) for nano-toxicity and eco-nano-toxicity assessment will enable the integrated application of standardised assessment methodologies. The following four NMs Life Cycle Stages (LCS) are addressed: synthesis, incorporation, use phase and end-of-life.

The application of the stage-gate SSbD process through the LCS addresses performance in the five dimensions (5D s): Safety, Environmental, Economic, Social and Functional.

Generation of dedicated response functions will allow associating Key Decision Factors (KDFs, such as: concentrations, processing parameters, etc.) to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs, such as: occupational safety, CO2 emissions, job creation potential, NM cost, antibacterial functionality, etc.). SSbD NMs solutions will be obtained by Multi Objective Optimisation Design (MOOD) dedicated algorithm.

A dedicated digital Decision Support Toolbox (DST) will elaborate design case specific data and run MOOD algorithm to sort the set of multi-optimal SSbD options, which are simultaneously complying with all the targeted KPIs referred to the 5Ds.

The digital supported decision process will help scientists, material engineers, Nano-Enabled Products (NEPs) designers, policymakers and decision-makers to takle the SSbD challenge, allowing for dramatic reduction of Research & Development (RTD) and approval lead-time as well as minimising costs and increasing the transparency of the data, by making the industrial uptake of nanotechnologies more sustainable and viable.INTEGRANO allows the integration with other existing SSbD frameworks by transposing results into other scoring metrics and enabling data exchange.