Webster Working with European Commission to Develop Strategies to Make Products Enabled by Advanced Nanomaterials
ChE Professor Thomas Webster, Art Zafiropoulo Chair, is part of a team of groups of global researchers working as part of a grant from the European Commission entitled ‘SUNSHINE’: Safe and sUstainable by desigN Strategies for HIgh performance multicomponent NanomatErials’. The main goal of SUNSHINE is to develop and implement strategies to make products enabled by multi-component (advanced) nanomaterials (MCNM). It will generate essential knowledge, tools and data on the exposure, hazard and functionality characteristics of nanomaterials, especially those arising from their unique properties and interactions (e.g., mixture effects due to the multi-component nature of the materials). Webster is part of the Nano Polymer Solutions team.
Strategy findings by industry will be delivered as part of a user-friendly e-infrastructure designed to: (1) facilitate collaboration and information exchange between actors along nanotechnology supply chains to promote the development and implementation of strategies for MCNM-based materials, products and processes; (2) support SMEs and large industries in the selection and application of simple, robust and cost-effective experimental, modelling and grouping/read-across approaches to acquire/generate the data needed to test the effectiveness of the strategies; (3) enable risk-benefit analysis of the modified materials and products at each stage of the innovation process to ensure that they are safe for the human health and the environment without compromising their technical and/or commercial probability of success. The strategies that are effective in reducing the risks from MCNMs, while retaining product performance and economic viability, will be proposed for full scale industrial implementation.