The week of 6th–9th February saw the European nanosafety community converge in Malaga for the “New Tools and Approaches for Nanosafety Assessment” conference, jointly organized by five of the large FP7 projects nearing completion. The five projects were: the sister projects NanoSolutions and NanoMILE, which investigated the mechanisms of toxicity of nanomaterials and developed mechanism-based classification and grouping approaches; the sister projects GUIDEnano and SUN, focusing on tools for risk evaluation, mitigation, and decision support to assist industry and regulators; and the data and ontology project eNanoMapper.
The conference showcased the outcomes of four years of research from these five projects through keynote presentations, short highlight presentations, and contributions from experts across Europe and beyond, selected from submitted abstracts. In total, there were 75 short presentations, two poster sessions featuring nearly 100 posters, and two panel discussions. The panel topics included:
- Stakeholder engagement: lessons learned and the path forward for H2020 projects – multi-stakeholder perspectives.
- Ensuring the legacy of EU-funded project outputs: strategies and supports needed.
The latter panel featured participants from the USA, Brazil, the EU, and organizations spanning industries, funding agencies, standardization bodies, large enterprises, and regulatory and policy institutions. A report on the stakeholder discussions is being prepared and will be shared with the community in due course. A key takeaway from the conference was that an extensive body of high-quality data has been generated over the last four years. However, there is now a pressing need to integrate this dataset into clear, consistent messages for industry, regulators, and policymakers.
Best Poster Award:
A Best Poster Award, sponsored by the RSC journal Environmental Science: Nano, was presented to Susan Dekkers from RIVM for her poster entitled “The influence of redox activity of inhaled nano-sized cerium dioxide on respiratory, immune, and cardiovascular effects in multiple mouse models.”. The award was decided by a panel of judges who assessed the posters over two days.
Participants and Accessibility:
The event attracted 220 participants from all 27 EU countries, as well as South Africa, the USA, China, South Korea, and beyond. For those unable to attend, the entire conference was recorded and will be made available online via a dedicated landing page hosted by Inclusive Digital, as well as the individual project websites and the EU Nanosafety Cluster webpage. Additionally, several short videos are being prepared, featuring interviews with project coordinators, stakeholder panel members, and more. Updates and discussions were shared on Twitter using the hashtag #nmsa2017.
Below are some pictures from the event:
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