European Observatory for Nanomaterials

The innovator, the regulator and the citizen – building public trust through transparent, empowered and safe innovation

Read our latest guest column from Carlos-Eduardo Lima Da Cunha from the European Commission who explains how the EU is supporting safe by design approaches to new technologies such as nanomaterials, to deliver safer products to the market.

Helsinki, 11 December 2019 – The EU has monitored and funded the development of nanomaterials for over 15 years, with a special focus on understanding their potential harm on our health and the environment. According to Mr Lima Da Cunha, it is now time to apply the gained knowledge so that we can use and design nanomaterials in a safe and functional way.

“In a society where economy, industry and society will be more closely integrated and the trend is to have an ever-increasing number of personalised products and services, the development of any new and advanced (nano)materials in Europe will rely heavily on work done in innovation testbeds using safe by design approaches to deliver faster and safer products to Europeans.”