On 15th December 2025, the SSbD4CheM consortium came together virtually for the M24 General Assembly. The meeting provided an opportunity to review the progress achieved over the past six months and to align on priorities and next steps for the months ahead.

Partners presented updates across the project’s Work Packages, highlighting key scientific and technical advances. Presentations were delivered by WP leaders (Milica Velimirovic, Beatriz Alfaro Serrano, Ivana Burzic, Barry Hardy, Tassos Papadiamantis/Panagiotis Kolokathis, Stephan Wagner, Yvonne Kohl, Wouter Gebbink, and Fruela Pérez Sánchez). A dedicated session also focused on the progress of the internal case studies in the automotive, textiles, and cosmetics sectors.

We were pleased to have some members of the External Advisory Board (EAB) joining us — Melanie MacGregor, Linda J. Johnston, Matteo Zanotti Russo, and Dr. Ze’evi Ma’or — and we sincerely thank them for their continued support and valuable guidance on project developments.

As always, it was a pleasure to connect with all partners and to continue working together towards the goals of SSbD4CheM.

On 4–5 December 2025, SSbD4CheM participated in the G4F Scientific Day – Environment & Health, held in Brussels and dedicated to the theme “Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF): pharmaceutical and environmental applications.” The two-day event gathered an international audience and offered a rich programme featuring 2 keynote lectures, 7 scientific talks, 2 interactive workshops, and multiple networking opportunities. In total, around 20 participants from across Europe took part.

Representing the SSbD4CheM project, Dr. Milica Velimirović Fanfani (VITO) contributed to the scientific programme with her presentation, “Holistic Nanoplastics Analysis: The Role of Field-Flow Fractionation in a Comprehensive Multimethod Framework.” Her talk highlighted the importance of FFF in characterising complex nanoplastic mixtures and demonstrated how multimethod approaches can enhance analytical robustness—key elements in advancing safe and sustainable materials assessment.

Throughout the event, Dr. Velimirović Fanfani also engaged in discussions exploring collaboration opportunities with other European researchers and stakeholders, further strengthening SSbD4CheM’s international outreach.

Agenda available here.

On 4 December 2025, the SSbD4CheM project took part in the BelTox–BEMS Annual Meeting 2025, hosted at Sciensano in Brussels. This year’s edition, “Unmasking Microplastics: Impacts, Challenges and Implications for (Eco)Toxicology,” brought together around 100 participants researchers (academia and industry) to explore one of today’s most rapidly evolving topics in environmental and human health research.

Co-organised once again by the Belgian Society of Toxicology and Ecotoxicology (BelTox) and the Belgian Environmental Mutagen Society (BEMS), the meeting offered a comprehensive overview of the microplastics landscape. Participants were introduced to key concepts in microplastics research and learned about state-of-the-art analytical methods—including Pyr-GC/MS coupled with sp-ICP/MS and advanced microscopy techniques. The programme also highlighted the presence and effects of microplastics in agricultural soils and showcased interdisciplinary progress spanning ecotoxicology, analytics, and human health.

The event further addressed toxicity assessment using in vivo and alternative models and examined persistent challenges in risk assessment, such as data quality and knowledge gaps regarding health impacts. Mitigation strategies, insights from EU-funded research, and the Young Scientists Competition enriched the day through discussion, innovation, and networking.

Representing SSbD4CheM, Dr. Milica Velimirović Fanfani (VITO) contributed to the scientific programme with her presentation, “Low µm-range microplastics and nanoplastics: finding the needle in the haystack”. Her participation also fostered national outreach and opened discussions on potential collaboration opportunities within Belgium’s growing microplastics research community.

The 15th Global Summit on Regulatory Science 2025 (GSRS25) took place from 15–17 September 2025 in Lausanne, Switzerland. This year’s conference brought together more than 200 scientists to exchange their experiences and insights on the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence in regulatory science, for building a strong regulatory science with tomorrow’s technologies.

Representing the SSbD4CheM project, Barry Hardy (Edelweiss Connect) presented a poster showcasing the project’s work on developing a robust knowledge infrastructure. The poster, titled “FAIR Knowledge Infrastructure for Next Generation Risk Assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design Workflows: Enabling High-Integrity Evidence Generation for Regulatory Submissions Including New Approach Method Results”, highlighted how FAIR data principles can support next-generation risk assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design approaches. The poster introduced a FAIR knowledge infrastructure that integrates NAMs data, mechanistic insights, and harmonized workflows to generate transparent, traceable, and regulatory-grade evidence. It supports NGRA and SSbD through knowledge graphs, standardized data, and AI-ready structures, enabling robust assessments, improved data reuse, and compliance with evolving regulatory expectations.

The participation in GSRS25 offered an excellent opportunity to engage with regulatory scientists and foster new interactions relevant to the project’s goals.

The poster programme is available here.

The 13th edition of the World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences (WC13) took place from 31 August to 4 September 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This major international event brought together around 2,000 participants from academia, industry, innovation communities, and other stakeholder groups. Over five days, attendees took part in 141 sessions organised across five main themes: One Health, Human Health, Animal Health, Environmental Health, and Education.

Representing the SSbD4CheM project, Barry Hardy and Connor Hardy (Edelweiss Connect) participated in the congress. Barry Hardy delivered two oral presentations on AI in risk assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) on 1 September, in Session 132 (“Application of New Approach Methods in the Safe and Sustainable Design of Innovative Products”) and Session 20 (“Artificial Intelligence to reduce and replace animal testing”). He also chaired the Session 132.

The presentations were titled:

• “AI-assisted Next Generation Risk Assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design Workflows enabled by FAIR Data and Knowledge”
• “Safe and Sustainable by Design Workflows supporting Product Design and Decision Making”

The congress offered a valuable opportunity to identify potential new collaborations and to disseminate the work carried out within the SSbD4CheM project.

The conference agenda is available here.

On 28 May 2025, an internal online workshop was held under the SSbD4CheM project for a duration of two hours. The session was organized by the Edelweiss Connect (EwC) team and attended by members of the entire consortium. The aim of the workshop was to provide an overview and hands-on demonstration of the SSbD tools implemented within the SSbD4CheM Knowledge Sharing Portal, supporting safer and sustainable by design (SSbD) assessments.

Detailed program:

The first part introduced the SSbD framework and presented how the newly developed tools can support the first step of the assessment process by increasing automation and simplifying user interaction.

The second part focused on AI-assisted resources designed to facilitate knowledge discovery and extraction. One highlighted tool was the SDS Toolbox, which enables users to search for Safety Data Sheets (SDS) online using a CAS number or IUPAC name, and to automatically parse and extract structured data from SDS PDF files. This toolbox integrates an end-to-end pipeline combining the search (SDS-FIND) and extraction (SDS-STRUCT) components into a single seamless process [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16735362]. 

Another tool introduced during the workshop was PubChemPal, developed to facilitate efficient access, retrieval, and management of chemical data from PubChem for SSbD applications. PubMed ChemInsight is an intuitive web-based tool designed to help researchers efficiently retrieve and analyze scientific literature related to specific compounds and their interactions [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14771565]. 

Several notebooks were also integrated into the portal to support the project such as the dataset for CLP classification, ecotoxicological endpoints, as well as chemical similarity search on repeated dose toxicity studies, and repeated dose toxicity studies.

The next part introduced SmartSafety, an operational safety assessment and decision-support tool designed to manage and evaluate product safety through a centralized repository of ingredient and formulation data. The system can interoperate with other platforms to enhance the performance of human health assessments such as Margin of Safety (MOS) and Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) calculations as well as to estimate environmental impact indicators. A new module has been incorporated to specifically support SSbD-related evaluations.

NAMs Test Method Documentation was also addressed, which provides a template and database for the systematic documentation of in vitro methods. This resource enables linking test methods to their respective readiness levels and incorporates a review workflow to ensure quality and traceability.

The following sections addressed the Physical–Chemical Characterisation Workflow and the use of workflow software for documenting SSbD steps. The Physical–Chemical Characterisation Workflow presented the process for organizing and managing protocols and associated datasets. This workflow supports the generation of harmonized and traceable data, ensuring consistency across different stages of assessment and facilitating integration with other SSbD components.

Subsequently, the use of workflow documentation tools was demonstrated to illustrate the SSbD process through the ASPA-supported NGRA workflow. The extension of this workflow to SSbD enables a step-by-step visualization of the entire assessment, guiding users through each phase and ensuring the required documentation is linked to the corresponding decision points. This structured approach enhances transparency, reproducibility, and communication of the assessment outcomes within the SSbD framework.

Workshop materials:

• The slides will be available soon
• The recording will be available soon

On 25 November 2025, the Collab4Resilience (C&R) network met for its second online networking workshop. 17 participants representing 9 EU-funded projects gather to further build on the KOM from April 2025, and aiming to strengthen collaboration between projects and enhance their visibility and outreach activities.

The meeting was opened by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, coordinator of the CheMatSustain project and leader of the initiative. They provided a brief overview of the network’s progress to date and recent developments within CheMatSustain. This was followed by a short presentation from the University of Bologna introducing the CheMatSustain Facility, the project’s key output, launched in 2025.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the “What We’re Proud Of” round, during which each project highlighted recent developments and achievements. Afterthat, we dive into a more interactive session with a digital mural to gather ideas for future communication activities—ranging from social media initiatives to joint events—as well as a knowledge-sharing activity to identify tangible collaboration opportunities.

The workshop concluded with a forward-looking discussion on plans for 2026, setting out practical next steps to strengthen communication, share resources, and foster mutual support.

Overall, the event demonstrated strong interest in further developing the community. 

Agenda of the meeting.

On 11 November 2025, Wood K Plus participated in Carinthia Innovates, an international conference held at Lakeside Park in Klagenfurt, Austria.  This edition focused on Green Transition & Semiconductor Technologies and gathered more than 300 international participants, creating a good opportunity for collaboration across sectors and borders. 

The event attracted a broad range of stakeholders, reflecting its multidisciplinary and future-oriented approach. Participants included industry representatives (coating manufacturers, timber industry, plastics industry), investors, regional authorities (2nd Deputy Governor and State Councillor responsible for finance, investments, development, and research), research and scientific communities (such as the University of Klagenfurt and the University of Applied Sciences Carinthia), as well as innovation clusters, including Green Tech Valley Cluster and the Timber Innovation Network Alpe Adria.

The SSbD4CheM project was represented by Wood K Plus (Mr. Christoph Jocham and Mr. Arun Mahendran) who took part in the “Research Deep Dive Tour”, where participants rotated through thematic rooms to discover ongoing research projects and their outcomes. Wood K Plus showcased, among others, SSbD4CheM’s contributions to sustainable solutions within the chemical sector. The plasma-coated textiles were presented, demonstrating their water-repellent properties with a live experiment. 

It was an excellent opportunity to share the project and its results with a strong regional audience of innovators, industries, and public authorities.

Among the valuable networking opportunities, the Wood K Plus team held a promising B2B discussion with a Hungarian coating company, opening doors for potential collaboration.

From 10-12 November 2025, Barry Hardy (Edelweiss Connect) and Wouter Gebbink (VITO) attended the 2nd Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Conference – SSbD25 in Zurich, Switzerland. The event, organised by IRISS project – the International SSbD Community – and Empa, brought together researchers, industry representatives, and policymakers to exchange knowledge and advance the implementation of SSbD principles across sectors.

During the conference, Wouter Gebbink presented a poster explaining the work performed in the project exploring renewable wood plastic composites (WPCs), as sustainable alternatives to conventional polypropylene (PP) with talc used in car interior trims, to reduce Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) emissions
compared to PP interior trims and assure no risk to human health. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17607096.

Barry Hardy gave an oral presentation which explored how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science enhance SSbD workflows. It showcased the case studies of the project, including cosmetics, PFAS-free coatings, biopolymers, bio-sourced chemicals, and graphene. The work demonstrated how AI-assisted tools support early-stage innovation by integrating existing data, models, and knowledge into risk identification, hazard profiling, and decision-making. By leveraging evidence-weighting and uncertainty scoring, the approach enables more ethical, accurate, and comprehensive assessments. The presentation highlighted methodologies, tools, and recommendations for addressing data gaps and strengthening SSbD practices. The presentation is available here.

It was a great opportunity to meet the broader SSbD community, share insights, and discuss the path forward towards sustainable innovation.

A big thank you to the organisers for an great event and for giving us the chance of attending – we’re already looking forward to next year’s edition!

The conference programm is available here.

The 4th edition of the International Conference on Microplastic Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea (µMED 2025) took place in Ischia, Italy, from 19–22 October 2025.

The conference brought together experts from diverse disciplines, including the scientific and industrial sectors, policy makers and environmental organizations, to explore all aspects of micro- and nanoplastic pollution, offering a valuable opportunity to share the latest developments, highlight recent advancements, and identify innovative materials, technologies and strategies to detect and mitigate this pressing environmental challenge.

On October 20^th, approx. 130 participants from reasearch and industry stakeholders joint Milica Velimirovic‘s (VITO) oral presentation. Under the title “Progress in analytical strategies for micro- and nanoplastics detection and characterisation“, Milica shared the work in SSbD4CheM’s textile study from microfibers release. 

µMED 2025 once again proved to be a valuable platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration, driving forward the scientific understanding and mitigation of microplastic pollution in marine environments.

Final Programme available here.