- The SUSTEM project promoted by Leitat will mobilise a total investment of 2.2 million euros, 1.1 million euros of which are subsidised by the Government of Catalonia.
The technological centre Leitat is promoting the SUSTEM project, which will become a research platform on safe and sustainable materials aimed at reducing the release and impact of emerging contaminants on the environment and human health. The project, with a total investment of 2.2 million euros, has received a grant of 1.1 million euros, within the framework of the 2024 Ajuts Singulars Institucionals call, promoted by the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).
The SUSTEM project represents an essential step forward to address one of the most urgent environmental and health challenges of our time: the release of emerging contaminants such as PFAS, micro- and nanoplastics, and nanoparticles from widely used materials in sectors such as textiles, paper, automotive, packaging, and construction. These compounds, highly persistent and often toxic, accumulate in the environment and can seriously affect human health, with proven impacts on the endocrine system, fetal development, fertility, the immune system, and the risk of various chronic diseases.
SUSTEM is born to reverse this reality through a unique research platform that allows the design, characterisation, and validation of new safe and sustainable materials, reducing the release of these substances throughout their life cycle. With this project, Leitat promotes a paradigm shift towards products formulated under Safe & Sustainable by Design criteria, contributing decisively to the protection of the environment, human health, and the competitiveness of an industry that must move towards truly clean and responsible models.
“With the SUSTEM project, we strengthen Leitat’s role as a scientific infrastructure at the service of industry. The new platform will allow us to advance in the research and development of safer and more sustainable materials and offer new technological capabilities to companies facing emerging environmental challenges,” highlights Jordi Cabrafiga, General Director of Leitat.
With this new platform, open to the scientific community and industry, the technology centre plans to promote research lines aimed at:
- Designing and developing safer and more sustainable materials, eliminating or reducing the use of emerging contaminants.
- Improving detection and analysis capabilities of contaminant substances and their degradation products.
- Advancing in the prevention of the release of substances with impact on the environment and human health, ensuring safety throughout their life cycle.
- Generating applied knowledge to transfer technology to industry.
The Ajuts Singulars Institucionals call aims to promote strategic scientific R&D&I infrastructures in Catalonia, capable of generating excellent research and accelerating knowledge transfer to the productive sector. The project will be carried out at Leitat’s facilities in Terrassa and at its headquarters in the Poblenou district in Barcelona, with an execution timeline planned until 2028.
