On 7 July 2026, Milica Velimirovic (VITO) participated in the kick-off event of the Belgian Plastic Pollution Research Community (BPPRC) held in Ghent, Belgium. The event gathered over 40 experts from 10 Belgian universities, research institutes, and 3 policy-related bodies.

The BPPRC is a collaborative network of Belgian researchers dedicated to understanding, monitoring, and addressing plastic pollution in Belgian ecosystems and beyond. Their mission is to bring scientists, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders together to advance knowledge on plastic pollution, understand environmental and human health effects, support risk assessment and mitigation measures, as well as evidence-based solutions for a litter-free environment, and advance the scientific state-of-the-art.

In the meeting, Milica engaged with this interdisciplinary platform in thematic focus groups mapping Belgian expertise in microplastics, ecotoxicological effect studies, and human health risk assessments. By participating in these discussions, Milica also in front of SSbD4CheM advocated for the integration of Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) principles early in the lifecycle of materials to mitigate the very plastic pollution and toxicity challenges highlighted by the community. 

Read the whole recap on the website of the Belgian Plastic Pollution Research Community.

The SSbD4CheM consortium met in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and hybrid, for its M30 General Assembly, bringing together project partners to review the progress achieved over the past six months and preparing strategic actions for the upcoming phase of the project in 2026.

Over two days of discussions, WP and Task leaders shared the latest developments and explored the next steps. The meeting also provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen collaboration, exchange ideas, and reinforce the shared commitment to the project’s objectives.

Participants were given a laboratory tour through the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering of the National Institute of Chemistry. Ondrej Panak and his colleagues guided the project partners through some of the research groups within the department. Its core activities focus on chemical and process engineering, including reactor and unit operation design and construction, as well as multi-scale process modelling. Key research areas include carbon dioxide and natural gas conversion, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, biomass valorisation to bio-based products, and (bio)pharmaceutical processes. The visit also included the microscopy center at NIC, providing insight into advanced characterisation and analytical capabilities.

Special thank you goes to the National Institute of Chemistry for hosting the meeting and for the excellent organisation, which also allowed participants to experience Slovenian culture and hospitality. Also big thank you also to our project coordinator, Milica Velimirović, for her continued leadership and guidance throughout the project.

We are pleased to congratulate our colleagues at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) for receiving the 2nd prize in the EARTO Innovation Awards 2026, in the category “Impact Delivered”, awarded during the ceremony on 10 June, for their magSIMS nano-imaging instrument.

The magSIMS, developed by LIST in collaboration with Raith, is an advanced mass spectrometer which enables structural and chemical analysis at the nanoscale. It combines exceptional spatial resolution with high chemical sensitivity, opening new possibilities across fields such as electronics, materials science, biology, and geology.

Within the SSbD4CheM project, our colleague Antje Biesemeier and her team at LIST are actively using the magSIMS to support key research activities. The instrument is applied to:

• investigate nanotoxicological endpoints in the cosmetics use case
• characterise physicochemical properties of innovative textile coatings developed within the project

This work not only advances scientific understanding within SSbD4CheM, but also contributes to the continued development and refinement of the magSIMS technology itself, demonstrating a strong synergy between methodological innovation and application-driven research.

A warm congratulations to LIST for this outstanding recognition and their continued contribution to addressing global challenges and supporting Europe’s transition towards a carbon-neutral, pollution-free, and technologically sovereign future. 

The SSbD4CheM project continues to build internal capacity across its consortium to ensure a shared level of understanding across disciplines.

A dedicated training programme on human and environmental exposure assessments was delivered as a series of online sessions between October 2025 and April 2026 (25.10.2025, 01.12.2025, 23.02.2026, and 28.04.2026). The training focused on equipping consortium members with foundational and applied knowledge essential for assessing chemical safety within the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework.

The trainings were provided by experts from VITO (Wouter Gebbink and Yentl Pareja Rodriguez) and Hochschule Fresenius (Lars Eschlbeck and Stephan Wagener).

The sessions introduced participants to the basics of human and environmental exposure assessments, a cornerstone of understanding chemical risks in real-world contexts. In addition to foundational concepts, the training explored sector-specific case studies, with a particular focus on automotive applications. The trainings covered the gathering of the input that is needed to perform an exposure assessment (e.g. physico-chemcial properties, environmental fate properties), developing exposure scenarios (including operational conditions for worker exposure and emission scenarios for environmental exposure), and finally comparing the exposure to (eco)toxicological threshold values to assess potential risk. These examples helped participants connect theoretical approaches with realistic industrial scenarios, demonstrating how exposure assessment supports safer chemical design and use throughout product life cycles. The exposure/risk assessment approach as shown for the automotive case study will be applied to the cosmetic and textile case studies within the project.

The SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting took place from 17–21 May 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands, bringing together around 2,500 participants from academia, industry, governmental institutions, and regulatory bodies interested in the programme, which included keynote lectures, oral and poster presentations, workshops, and networking events. This year, the event’s theme was ‘Embrace the outlier: in science, regulations, and networks’, bringing together diverse perspectives to advance environmental sciences and their adoption in policy making, and serving as a major platform for discussing the latest scientific and regulatory developments in environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry, sustainability, life cycle assessment (LCA), risk assessment, Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD), as well as including industrial ecology, material science, pharmaceutical sciences, governance studies, agricultural studies, etc.

SSbD4CheM partners from VITO (Xiaoyu Zhang and Wouter Gebbink), Leiden University (Thomas Arblaster, Nils Thonemann, and Jeroen Guinée) and BNN (Katharina Lang-Hogrefe) actively contributed to the conference by presenting research related to PFAS replacement strategies, the safe implementation of sustainable materials in industrial applications, as well as LCA in the automotive case study, and best practices in scientific communication.

Xiaoyu Zhang (VITO) presented a poster entitled “Ensuring Safety in PFAS Replacement: Chemical Stability and New Product Formation in Plasma-Processed Bio-Based Coatings for Textiles”, on 19th May. The research focused on evaluating bio-based alternatives to PFAS-based textile coatings and assessing their chemical stability and safety following plasma processing. The study investigated acrylic acid and soybean oil-based coatings as potential PFAS-free solutions for textile applications. Using advanced analytical methods, including DART-MS and LC-APPI-MS, the work evaluated liquid repellency, antimicrobial performance, and the formation of new compounds after plasma treatment. The results demonstrated that bio-based coatings can offer promising functional performance while potentially reducing environmental persistence compared to conventional PFAS-containing materials. The work also included a preliminary safety assessment using the SbD4Skin tool, supporting the development of safer and more sustainable textile materials.

Wouter Gebbink (VITO) contributed with a presentation entitled “Occupational and Consumer Exposure to VOCs during the Production and Use Phase of Renewable Wood Plastic Composites for Car Interior Trims”, presented during the session Innovative Strategies in Implementing Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Approaches, on 21st May. The study evaluated worker and consumer exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the production and use of renewable wood plastic composites for automotive interior panels. Key conclusions included: (i) Incorporating wood-based fillers in car interior panels can eliminate or reduce risks for workers during production and for consumers exposed to TVOC and FOG emissions inside vehicles. (ii) Weathered materials showed significantly lower TVOC/FOG emissions compared to pristine materials, resulting in lower in-car air concentrations. (iii) Although all estimated exposure levels remained below safe thresholds, children under 11 years of age experienced equal or higher exposure levels compared to adults. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20392915.

The participation in SETAC Europe 2026 provided an important opportunity for SSbD4CheM partners to disseminate research outcomes, engage with experts in environmental safety, analytical chemistry, operationalisation of ex-ante LCA for (environmental) sustainability assessment in SSbD, and strengthen collaboration within the sustainability and toxicology communities.

The posters and oral presentations generated valuable scientific discussions around SSbD implementation, PFAS alternatives, environmental exposure assessment, sustainable materials development, LCA, and scientific communication. The event also contributed to increasing the visibility of the project and fostering future networking and collaboration opportunities.

On 11th May 2026, SSbD4CheM partners (Beatriz Alfaro, BNN) part in the third networking workshop of the Collab4Resilience (C4R) initiative, organised by the CheMatSustain communication team. The initiative brings together projects working on safe and sustainable chemicals and nanomaterials, with the goal of strengthening collaboration and amplifying the impact of communication and dissemination activities across the community.

In March 2026, the SSbD4CheM project actively contributed to two major European events dedicated to advancing the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, both held in Brussels.

The project participated in the 6th EC SSbD Stakeholder Event: ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design: Accelerating the Industrial Transition’ on 19 March 2026, followed by the SSbD Horizon Europe Projects Networking Event on 20 March 2026. Together, these events brought around 60 participants from a broad range of stakeholder groups, including EU institutions, industry, innovators, investors, and representatives from research and policy communities.

The discussions highlighted the critical role of collaboration between research projects, industry, and policymakers in maximising the impact of SSbD approaches. Taking place shortly after the adoption of the revised SSbD framework, the events highlighted the European Union’s strong commitment to fostering the development of chemicals and materials that are safe and sustainable by design, addressing potential risks early in the innovation process.

SSbD4CheM was represented by Milica Velimirovic (VITO) , and Barry Hardy (EwC). Andreas Falk from BNN also participated in his role as part of the NSC coordination team, and as partner of SSbD4CheM. During the networking event, Milica delivered an oral presentation showcasing the SSbD4CheM project. She introduced the project’s tools and methodologies, demonstrating how integrated assessment approaches and toolboxes are being developed to support informed decision-making and lifecycle analysis. [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19913251]

The participation in both events provided valuable opportunities to strengthen connections with other Horizon Europe projects and key stakeholders. In particular, the networking event fostered discussions on future collaboration and contributed to building a stronger, more connected SSbD ecosystem across Europe.

SSbD4CheM remains committed to supporting the implementation of the SSbD framework and to contributing to a safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials landscape.