Partners
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. It has a staff of ca. 11,000 employees, among these about 3,700 are permanent researchers. The CSIC has 123 institutes/Centers and produces 20% of the national scientific output. The Spectroscopy and Industrial Catalysis (SpeICat) group, co-led by Prof. Avila and Prof. Bañares belongs to The Institute of Catalysis and Petroleumchemistry and it is involved in the project as Project Coordinator.
MORE INFO: http://www.csic.es/home
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
IOM is a major independent centre of scientific excellence in the fields of occupational and environmental health, hygiene and safety and has established a leading presence on chemical- and nanotechnology-risk issues through an international reputation in assessing the risk of small particles and fibres. The institute has expertise in hazard, exposure and risk assessment for workplace hazards, including nanomaterials and nanotechnology in support of regulation and industrial innovation.
MORE INFO: https://www.iom-world.org/
The European Research Services GmbH is a public-private-partnership that supports researchers in planning and managing EU-projects. ERS provides technical and administrative support, adapting project-management to the size and complexity of each specific project. ERS helps to implement risk assessment, internal monitoring and common standard procedures, safeguarding outcomes within time, budget, and EU guidelines.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP1: Administrative Project Management
• WP8: Dissemination support
European Research Services
• Sets up a ‚helpdesk’ for the project correspondence and day-to-day requests from partners and external bodies.
• Manages the project structure and processes (‘project infrastructure’), including management tools, administrative details, and partner-specific templates for documentation.
• Helps setting up rules for internal communication and implementing reporting and controlling.
• Is responsible for preparing, executing and post-processing of major project meetings such as Video/Telephone Conferences, Steering Board meetings, Full Assemblies and meetings with the Advisory Board.
• Supports the technical coordination of periodic reporting and reviews, including preparing and post-processing of reviews.
MORE INFO: https://www.european-research-services.eu/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Hildegard Luhmann | Project Manager
Arhus University (AU) was founded in 1928. It has 40,000 students; about 1,800 PhD students – of which one in four has a foreign nationality – and close to 900 postdoctoral scholars together with 11,500 employees. AU has been establishing itself as a university for cutting-edge research, and has been moving up the most important university ranking lists. The Department of Bioscience was established in 2011 by a merger of the Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University and the National Environmental Research Institute. The Department priorities a good teaching environment and carries out basic research, strategic research and research-based consultancy services.
MORE INFO: https://international.au.dk/
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is the scientific body of the Federal Republic of Germany that prepares expert reports and opinions on issues related to food safety and consumer health protection (www.bfr.bund.de). The assessments are conducted according to internationally recognized scientific criteria. The institute provides sound scientific advice to federal ministries and agencies which are responsible for chemical safety, consumer protection and food safety. The BfR also conducts own experimental research to strengthen and substantiate risk assessment processes. The Department of Chemicals and Consumer Product Safety is responsible for assessment of chemicals according to REACH and CLP as well as for safety of consumer products. We are actively involved in several panels and committees such as ECHA Nanomaterial Expert Group (NMEG), SCCS or others, and are engaged at OECD WPMN.
MORE INFO: https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/home.html
GreenDecision (GD) is a spin-off company of University Ca’ Foscari of Venice (UNIVE). Its mission is to transfer to European consortia and the private sector knowledge and experience generated for over a decade of research and development of strategies, modelling tools and software-based systems for risk assessment and management of chemicals and nano(bio)technologies used in consumer products and medicine. The main activities of the company involve developing and testing of modelling and decision support tools in the environmental, health and safety areas, and facilitating their exploitation by stakeholders.
MORE INFO: https://www.greendecision.eu/wp/
RADIUS is a unique collaboration between lecturers and researchers from Agro-Biotechnology, Chemistry and Biomedical Laboratory Technology. This TMK research group combines diverse expertise in relation to sustainable chemistry. This group has expertise in using and developing computer models to predict the physicochemical, biological and (eco)toxicological properties of chemical compounds. This research is targeting the optimization of existing computer models, for example by combining different systems, or by integrating other relevant sources of information (e.g. literature), to predict certain properties, such as activities or toxicities, of chemical compounds. In addition, new models are developed and evaluated. The knowledge of using (Q)SARs for a REACH registration dossier also falls under our scope.
MORE INFO: https://www.thomasmore.be/en/welcome
Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a major centre of teaching and research, comprising nine faculties, 27 schools, 98 departments and 128 research institutes and centres. It is a highly multi-disciplinary university and a leader in all relevant disciplines, from engineering to law, computer science to business, physics to arts. TAU’s schools of computer science and mathematics are ranked among the top 20–30 worldwide. Many other schools are ranked among the top 100. It maintains high research standards with 3,500 research projects per year, 4,000 scientific publications per year, 128 research institutes, and 400 research laboratories. It is ranked 1st amongst Israeli universities in citations as well as patents filed by universities. It has some 28,000 Israeli students, of which 1,500 are international students. The student body comprises 50% undergraduate, 50% graduate and PhD with a female/male ratio of 55:45.
MORE INFO: https://english.tau.ac.il/
Laboratory of Environmental Chemometrics develop and apply advanced methods of chemometrics, statistics and computational chemistry to environmental problems. Laboratory of Environmental Chemometrics studies are especially focused on developing Quantitative Structure – Activity Relationships (QSARs) to predict toxicity and physicochemical properties of novel chemicals (especially nanomaterials, hybrid materials and photocatalyst). In consequence, a comprehensive risk assessment for new substances becomes possible without a vast number of experiments performed on living animals. Moreover, costs and time of the risk assessment procedures can be significantly reduced.
Research team members are specialists in computer design of new, safe chemicals, nanotechnology, nanotoxicology, chemical statistics and chemometrics. By employing computational resources, research group is able to extract useful information from multivariate environmental data. Moreover, team members can successfully model processes and phenomena that are important from the environmental and human health point of view.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP2: supporting of WP2 partners in Task 2.1 Database and Data Management, related to development of NanoInformaTIX database,
• WP3: Leadership of Task 3.2., related to development and identification of new advanced descriptors for the evaluation of ENM exposure/hazard, preparation of deliverable Report for D3.3 “Preliminary list of advanced descriptors and corresponding MODA” and D3.4 “Final list of advanced descriptors and corresponding MODA datasheets”,
• WP5: involvement in Task 5.1 Modelling Dose-Response, related to investigation which (combinations of) intrinsic (i.e. system independent properties) and extrinsic structural (i.e. system dependent properties) and physicochemical characteristics of ENM (WP3), dispersed in environmental or biological media (WP4) affect their toxicity.
MORE INFO: https://en.ug.edu.pl/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Alicja Mikolajczyk | PhD and main Researcher in the Project
UCD is Ireland’s largest University with over 30,000 students, and ranked 176th worldwide by the 2016 Times Higher Education Supplement and 100th in Europe. UCD supports the full range of academic disciplines. UCD have made significant investments over the last 5 years in natural sciences, including systems biology, bionano interactions, and medicine. These are active areas of strategic development where UCD is building internationally recognised capacities. UCD School of Physics has a significant expertise in molecular and mesoscale modelling of bio and nanomaterials. UCD Physics hosts the Irish node of CECAM (European Centre for Atomistic and Molecular Modelling) and organises three international CECAM events (workshops or schools) annually. UCD Physics offers graduate programmes in Nanobio Science, Theoretical and Computational Physics, and Nanotechnology.
MORE INFO: https://www.ucd.ie/
The BIOCENIT – Bioinformatics & Computational Environmental Engineering research group includes professors and researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics of the University Rovira i Virgili (URV). BIOCENIT has the research accreditation of the Catalan Research and Innovation System. It is formed by professors and researchers, experts in the areas of chemical and environmental engineering, computer sciences and applied mathematics. Research interests related to the current project include machine learning and data mining, as well as molecular simulations and electronic structure calculations for the prediction of physico-chemical properties. The emphasis states in classification and imputation algorithms, dimensionality reduction, feature extraction algorithms and pattern recognition in complex systems of chemical and biological interest, exposure models and real time predictive identification. They have developed advanced neural network-based pattern recognition algorithms and molecular modelling techniques to build robust QSAR / QSPR models from data collected both in silico and in experimental laboratories.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP3: URV will estimate the preliminary advanced descriptors by the electronic and atomistic models planned during the first year. URV will use ab-initio DFT and DFTB calculations to identify and describe surface reactive sites, and to quantify their reactivity (acidic, basic, redox) towards probe molecules and data experimentally accessible, for the agreed materials of the three main classes of ENM, namely fibrous materials, non-soluble and soluble ENM. That will provide a reactive map of nanomaterials that can be a good descriptor very relevant to toxicity, which – like catalysis – is related to surface reactivity. URV will take profit of the MOdelling DAta (MODA) approach, as documented in the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) about “Materials modelling – terminology, classification and metadata”.
• WP5: URV will research on grouping and classifying ENM according to their biological activity based on Structural Pattern Recognition instead of classical statistical methods.
MORE INFO: http://www.urv.cat/en/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Francesc Serratosa | Participation in WP5. Machine learning and pattern recognition based on structured patterns (http://deim.urv.cat/~francesc.serratosa/)
INVESTIGATORS IN NanoInformaTIX
Benjamí Martorell Masip | Participation in WP3. Molecular simulations and electronic structure calculations for computing descriptors
Laura Escorihuela Martí | Participation in WP3. Molecular simulations and electronic structure calculations for computing descriptors. Management of project.
Alberto Fernández | Participation in WP3 and WP5. Nano-(Q)SAR modelling
Ideaconsult is a SME providing consultancy, technical services, chemical safety data hosting and software development in the areas of chemoinformatics, QSAR, and data mining since 2004. The company has led data management and implementation WPs in a number of FP7 and H2020 projects. Ideaconsult develops and maintains several well-known and widely used open source software products, in particular Toxtree (toxic hazard estimation by applying a decision tree approach), and AMBIT, an open source chemical substance data management and QSAR decision support system with REST web services. We develop, host and maintain the CEFIC LRI AMBIT tool (https://ambitlri.ideaconsult.net), providing support to experts in data gathering, integrated model prediction and automatic generation of read across data matrix. These tools have been carefully designed and developed in close co-operation with academia, regulatory bodies, and the industry. The searchable eNanoMapper database at EUON https://euon.echa.europa.eu/enanomapper relies on services hosted by and developed by the company.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
- WP2: WP2 Databases leader. Working towards building and maintenance of a comprehensive database integrating diverse data sources. Providing open source data access interfaces, based on agreed ontology, implementing interoperable API and standard formats to support data analysis and data mining and enable interoperable modelling infrastructure.
MORE INFO: https://www.ideaconsult.net/
PRINCIPAL INVISTIGATOR
Nina Jeliazkova | WP2 leader, Researcher
The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest institution of academic education in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. Through the power of science, the University has contributed to society, education and welfare since 1640. UH has 11 faculties, and it provides teaching on four campuses in Helsinki: the City Centre, Kumpula, Meilahti and Viikki. In addition, the University has research stations in Hyytiälä, Värriö, Kilpisjärvi and Kenya. UH is the only Finnish university to consistently rank in the top 100 of international university rankings. In 2017, the University of Helsinki placed 56th in the Shanghai Ranking, 90th in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking and 102th in the QS World University Ranking and 81th in the Taiwan (NTU) ranking.
MORE INFO: https://www.helsinki.fi/en
Leiden University (founded in 1575) has approximately 23,000 students (from 110 different countries) and 5,500 staff members. The mission of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of Leiden University is in strategic multidisciplinary research in relation to the sustainable management of natural resources, environmental quality and biodiversity. Impacts are on the one hand analyzed using field research on different organizational levels (species, populations and ecosystems), allowing to develop ecological risk assessment models that are based on ecological and eco-toxicological fate and effect mechanisms as they occur in the environment. Finally, recovery strategies to counteract the human impacts are developed, especially from an actor-based perspective. On the other hand, CML plays a leading role in the field of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and has been on the basis of some of the commonly used basic approaches and models for LCA and for Life Cycle Impact Analysis (LCIA), amongst others focusing on material resources and material flows. CML has a long-lasting tradition to perform research and education in the multidisciplinary field of environmental sciences. The institute has ample experience in chemical risk assessment, including assessment of the fate/behavior and toxic effects, and has numerous publications in this field.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP3: The focus of the contribution of Leiden University to WP3 is on the study of membrane binding affinities of nanomaterials as done on the basis of mesoscopic simulations of liposomes. This is done by considering both the relevant membrane properties as well as the relevant nanomaterial properties.
• WP5: WP leader and responsible for Task 5.1 (Dose-response modelling). Main activities include development of predictive modelling of the environmental impacts of nanomaterials. This will be done according to the following general chain of activities: data collection, data evaluation, descriptor selection, actual modelling and subsequent model development, model validation by means of internal and external experimental data on the property of interest.
MORE INFO: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Wilie Peijnenburg | Research coordinator
SINTEF Ocean conducts research within ocean-based industries, e.g. aquaculture, marine resources, oil and gas, and environmental technology. We perform basic and applied research for the industry as well as for governmental institutions. The Department of Environment and New Resources (ENR) within SINTEF Ocean has coordinated and participated in several research projects on environmental fate and effects of a range of metal oxide and carbon-based nanomaterials. We have long experience of working with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in natural waters, studying behaviour and effects on standard test species.
We have 25 years of experience in modelling transport and effects of pollutants in the ocean, including particulate materials, oil and dissolved chemicals. Through the EU Cost Action MODENA, and a recent internal project, we have developed experience on nanoQSAR modelling of the toxicity of CNTs. We employ several researchers with background in computational physics and biology, as well as several software engineers.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP4: SINTEF will contribute to the development of aquatic (freshwaters and marine) environmental transport and fate models for ENMs (T4.1).
• WP5: SINTEF will contribute to the modelling of ENM dose-response (T5.1).
• WP8: Contribution to dissemination of project results and training activities.
MORE INFO: https://www.sintef.no/en/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Andy Booth | Project Manager for SINTEF Ocean, Researcher
Established in 1982, the University of Rome Tor Vergata is located in a 600-hectares campus in the South-east of Rome. Tor Vergata currently offers 112 degree courses (bachelor degree, Master degree, single-cycle degree), 160 Post Graduate and Master Courses and 31 PhD courses. Because of our international vision 19 courses and most PhD courses are offered in English. 12 PhD programs grant a joint degree with foreign Universities. Our 18
Departments and 42 Interdisciplinary Research Centers are active in numerous disciplines to expand basic and applied research. The participation of University of Tor Vergata to the international research activity is active and widely promoted by the central administrative offices, in particular by the International Research Division, which provides support to researchers in all the phases of the Project cycle: Proposal, Negotiation, management and reporting. Currently the University is running 81 research projects financed by the Horizon 2020 and the last Research Framework Programme of the European Commission FP7. Then, there are 40 research projects funded by other International programmes.
MORE INFO: http://en.uniroma2.it/
The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), founded in 1836, is the oldest and most prestigious greek educational institution in engineering. The NTUA team (Research Unit of Advanced, Composite, Nano Materials & Nanotechnology, School of Chemical Engineering) comprises chemical & mechanical/civil engineers, physicists, chemists and technicians specialized in the fields of materials research and development, possessing a very experienced staff (several professors, research scientists and PhD students) as well as extensive facilities for materials synthesis, processing, characterization and computational modeling. NTUA team expertise can be described as follows: i) Strong know-how for end-users, communities requiring chemical risk assessment, ii) Extensive knowledge in the field of research ethics by active involvement in research ethics committees and associated structures, iii) participation in relevant clusters and platforms (NanoSafety Cluster (NSC), Greek NanoSafety platform) that offers knowledge regarding stakeholder needs, regulation gaps on nanomaterials through NSC registered projects.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP4: Partner in Task 4.1” Biodistribution Modelling” NTUA in close collaboration with NCSR and IOM will assist in the development of PBPK models by implementing data extrapolation from in vitro studies
• WP5: Partner in Task 5.1 “Modelling Dose – Response”. NTUA with other partners (ULEI, SO, TMK, UG, NCSR) will assist in development of quantitative models by linking the mined response data to intrinsic (WP3) and extrinsic (WP3 and WP4) ENM physicochemical descriptors.
• WP5: Partner in Task 5.4 “Grouping/Classifying ENM”. NTUA will use the generated data from Task 5.1 which links ENM advanced descriptors with dose-response toxicological data for grouping of nanomaterials.
MORE INFO: http://nanolab.chemeng.ntua.gr/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Prof. Costas A. Charitidis
STUDENTS WORKING IN NanoInformaTIX
- Athanasios K. Morosinis, Post Doc | Computational Modelling, Predictive analysis
- Ioannis Xiarchos, Post Doc | Physicochemical descriptors and parameters for modelling
The University of Aveiro (UA) is one of Portugal’s 14 public universities. Founded in 1973, UA has grown into a successful, dynamic and competitive institution. The UA is integrated in the community and region, presenting a strong research dimension and offering a wide range of educational programmes, from post-secondary vocational to doctoral programmes. Committed from the start to innovation, quality and the attainment of national and international recognition in the pillars of Education, Research and Cooperation with society, the UA has built a profile based on sciences and technology and on pioneering areas. DeBio-CESAM (Department of Biology-Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies) is one of the R&D Units of the University of Aveiro Research Institute that currently integrates more than 300 researchers, from five Departments (Environment, Biology, Physics, Geosciences and Chemistry). During the last five years, CESAM published more than 2000 papers in JCR journals.
CESAM researchers publish in world top journals, with an impact above world averages in the respective scientific areas.
MORE INFO: https://www.ua.pt/#
EMPA, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, is a research institution within the ETH domain and plays an important role in education, science and innovation in Switzerland. It specializes in applications, focused research and development, and provides high-level services in the field of sustainable materials science and technology. Its core tasks are innovative collaboration with industry and public institutions,
ensuring the safety of people and the environment, knowledge propagation and university-level teaching. The Technology and Society Lab (TSL) is an interdisciplinary research unit of Empa studying opportunities and risks of emerging technologies. A team of about 30 researchers is active in the fields of information and communication technologies, nanoscale technologies, renewable energy and resource management. TSL analyses technologies embedded in social processes, focusing on the interactions among technology, environment and society with an emphasis on material flows connected with emerging technology applications. The Lab creates knowledge that supports industry in developing technologies that are beneficial and acceptable for society. It helps to minimize the risks of new technologies and contributes to sustainability by giving early warnings of critical developments in technology applications.
MORE INFO: https://www.empa.ch/
UppinTech OÜ is a Research, Development and Innovation company mainly consulting, as well as conducting research and investigations on active and emerging fields of technologies that include but not limited to biotechnology, nanotechnology, material sciences, etc. This includes consultations, molecular design and modeling on computational (nano)chemistry, Computer Aided Molecular Design, QSAR/QSPR/QNAR, Computational (nano)toxicology, (proteo)chemometrics, etc.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP3: Materials modelling using full-atomistic methods to develop descriptors based on spherical full nanoparticles.
• WP5: Working on nanoparticle grouping and classification.
• WP6: Working on model integration and improvement and also leading the work on model validation.
MORE INFO: https://infopank.ee/ettevote/112568/uppintech-ou
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Indrek Tulp, PhD | Researcher
PEOPLE WORKING IN NanoInformaTIX
Jaanus Burk, PhD student | Model development, improvement and validation
Kaido Tämm, PhD | Consulting on nanodescriptors
The National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (DEMOKRITOS) participates in this proposal with two of its laboratories. The System Reliability & Industrial Safety Laboratory (SRISL) has expertise on quantitative occupational risk assessment and risk management (including nanomaterial risks), advanced data analytics, uncertainty quantification, mathematical optimization and machine learning. SRISL will also disseminate and exploit the project results through the Greek Nanosafety Platform (GR-NSP) and the Greek Technology Platform on Industrial Safety. The Thermal – Hydraulics and Multiphase Flow Laboratory (THEMLAB) conducts basic and applied research on the inter-connecting topics of health sciences and nanotechnology. Activities include: (a) Mathematical modelling of particle biodistribution and doses; (b) Modelling mouth and throat deposition of aerosols to calculate regional deposition along the extrathoracic airway; and (c) Developing state-of-the-art scientific software for micro-nano-particle dynamics and biofluid flow applications using CFD.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
• WP3: DEMOKRITOS will lead the development of an advanced optimization algorithm to be integrated in the SNF platform, receive input from the available models, and guide the search towards safe-by-design alternatives.
• WP4: DEMOKRITOS will lead the development of human exposure models based on complex Computational Fluid Dynamics tools and mechanistic models and human PBPK models based on compartmental methods.
• WP6: DEMOKRITOS will lead the development, implementation and assessment of procedures for model refinement and improvement, to ensure their integration in a multi-scale modelling framework.
• WP5 and WP7: Minor contributions
MORE INFO: http://www.demokritos.gr/?lang=en
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Dr. Effie Marcoulaki | Senior Researcher; Leader of the DEMOKRITOS team in NanoinformaTIX
Dr. Panos Neofytou | Senior Researcher; Acting Head of Thermal Hydraulics and Multiphase Flow Lab
Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) is a public university based in Turin: Established in 1859, it is the oldest technical university in Italy (http://www.polito.it). The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design to more than 33,500 students, including more than 850 PhD students. The SMaLL group (http://www.polito.it/small), which stands for multi-Scale Modeling Laboratory, is involved in the NanoInformaTIX project. This group has been active for many years in modelling bio/nano-technologies and colloidal suspensions by various approaches, including atomistic, coarse-grained and Lattice Boltzmann models, and model-order reduction techniques.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
- WP3 about “Material modelling”. POLITO/SMaLL is the WP leader and, more specifically, perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, coarse-grained MD (CGMD) simulations and continuum simulations in order to develop better descriptors, based on material properties.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Eliodoro Chiavazzo, PhD | Researcher
POST-DOCS WORKING IN NanoInformaTIX
Giulia Mancardi, PhD | Material modeller
Warrant Hub SpA is consultancy services company that provides full-spectrum consulting in business finance. Warrant Hub SpA has been active since 1995, growing over the years to become a leader in its sector today. WG Business Units work in synergy with its Innovation Lab to give their clients the best support tools for the success of their business initiatives and to assist them in the preparation and management of strategic projects: business projects, research projects, training and technology transfer activities, under National and International support frameworks.
The European Funding Division (EFD) team provides consultancy, training and support on European Funding opportunities, and in the preparation, negotiation and management of European Proposals, particularly on H2020 calls. EFD offers also support for communication and dissemination activities, and participates to and organizes sectional seminars and networking events with/for industrial associations, SME, policy makers, etc. thus having the opportunity to disseminate the project results to all groups of relevant audiences.
MORE INFO: http://www.warranthub.it
TEMAS is a private SME (service provider) in Switzerland, strongly engaged in technology transfer and innovation-oriented programmes and projects as well as open innovation consulting. Target groups are SME and larger industries, as well as research teams, public authorities, promotion agencies, business associations and interest groups. The core competence of TEMAS is building bridges between science communities and industry, also in early stages of technology developments. TEMAS has developed specific processes for knowledge transfer, invention, and innovation management. TEMAS has been a major partner in the development of the Swiss Precautionary Matrix for Nanomaterials and the development of the Safe-by-Design Implementation Platform.
MORE INFO: https://www.temas.ch/en/home-2/
The National Research Council (CNR) is the largest public research institution in Italy, with about 8000 researchers. Its mission is to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge, and their application for the scientific, technological, economic, and social development of the Country. ISTEC-CNR is an interdisciplinary research institute of CNR, specifically addressed to the global study of ceramic materials and in particular of advanced ceramics. ISTEC has strong international collaborations within Europe, USA and Japan, and at present is involved in many international programs, covering leader roles in many FP7 and HORIZON 2020 projects, in the area of biomaterials, advanced ceramic materials and nanosafety.
MORE INFO: http://www.istec.cnr.it/index.php/eng/
NRCWE is a government research institute under the Ministry of Employment performing research in occupational health and safety. NRCWE’s goal is to generate and disseminate knowledge contributing to a safe, healthy work environment. The annual budget is 13 million EUR and NRCWE has a total staff of about 180. Occupational nanosafety is one of NFA’s five strategic research areas and has app. 35 employees. The strategic focus on nanotechnology and health risks was initiated in 2005 and resulted in the formation of the Danish NanoSafety Centre in 2012 with secured funding until medio 2019 (1 mill EUR/year). NRCWE has performed studies of nanomaterial emmisions in air, work place measurements of occupational exposure to nanomaterials, physico-chemical characterisation of nanomaterials and in vivo hazard studies of nanoparticles, diesel exhaust particles, and other combustion derived particles with focus on cancer, cardiovascular disease and prenatal toxicity. NRCWE has partnered in 18 EU projects on nanosafety, work package leader in NanoReg and project leader in the newly initiated H2020 project CaLIBRAte.
MORE INFO: http://nfa.dk/en
The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Työterveyslaitos; FIOH) is a governmental research, development and specialist organization in the field of occupational health and safety. The main functions of the FIOH are research, specialist advisory services, training, and dissemination of information. Research on nanosafety has been going on in the FIOH since 2005, with primary goals to contribute to the safe use of ENM at workplaces and to support regulators, social partners and other stakeholders. FIOH has expertise and facilities on the assessment of occupational exposure to NMs, design and conduct of toxicological studies in cellular and experimental animal models, toxicological risk assessment, and test guideline development. FIOH produces tools and guidance for NM risk assessment and management and provides information and training on the safe use of NMs. In NanoInformaTIX, FIOH participates in WP4 (exposure models) and WP6 (a case-study on genotoxicity).
MORE INFO: https://www.ttl.fi/en/
The Swansea University Medical School (SUMS) in vitro toxicology group (IVTG) focuses upon using advanced in vitro methods to deduce the (potential) mechanistic toxicology of chemicals and engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). The IVTG is led by Professor Shareen H Doak and supported by Professor Gareth J Jenkins and Dr Martin JD Clift. The focus of the IVTG is to create and study advanced in vitro models representing organs of the human body to assess the mechanistic toxicology of chemicals and ENMs. The IVTG currently employs 5 post-doctoral researchers, 15 PhD students and 5 technical staff members whilst also encouraging and disseminating this research to BSc and MSc students on an annual basis. The expertise within this group is diverse covering: ENM characterisation, exposure and uptake, advanced in vitro (3D) models, advanced ENM exposure systems, and mechanistic toxicology of chemicals/ENMs.
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
SU are the case study lead on nanofibre inhalation toxicity in WP6. SU will review existing literature (2009-2019), extract the physico-chemical feature set of the nanofibres used and compile a document of the key findings. The objective is to provide this data to in silico toxicologists to create model algorithms capable of predicting the role of nanofibre characteristics related to their biological impact; i.e. creating structure-activity relationships. This could then be applied to both existing materials available to consumers but also to be used as a tool to highlight a safe-by-design approach to nanofibre production. SU is also participating in Case Study 2: Quantitative Genetic Toxicology, which aims to quantify genotoxicity using in vitro and in vivo models, discriminating between primary and/or secondary mechanisms of genotoxicity. SU will contribute to WP2, seeking to implement a database of EU, US and Chinese data, supporting data analysis and data mining activities.
MORE INFO: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Prof. Shareen H Doak | Academic Collaborator/Researcher
Dr. Martin JD Clift | Academic Collaborator/Researcher
Researcher WORKING IN NanoInformaTIX
Dr. Michael J Burgum | Post-Doctoral Researcher
Aix-Marseille University was officially opened on January 1, 2012, replacing the University of Provence, University of the Mediterranean and Paul Cézanne University. All the academic fields that may be studied in France are represented at Aix-Marseille University, which has five major divisions, structured into 19 faculties, schools, and institutes. Aix-Marseille University has nearly 74,000 students including 10,000 international students, 7,680 faculty and staff members, 12 doctoral schools and nearly 3,650 PhD students. Aix-Marseille University is home to 132 research facilities – 118 research units and 14 federative research structures – linked to France’s biggest research institutions (CNRS, INSERM, IRD, INRA, CEA). CEREGE is a public research laboratory under a multiple head of the Aix Marseille University, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the IRD and the College de France (UMR 7330). The Sustainable Development Group (20 permanent staffs and 10 students) of the CEREGE was pioneer in studying the toxicity and impact of manufactured nanoparticles.
MORE INFO: https://www.univ-amu.fr/en
With a proud history extending as far back as 1934, MINTEK is a leading provider of minerals processing and metallurgical engineering products and services to industries world-wide. Mintek is committed to innovation and world-class research and development expertise and is supported by a physical infrastructure of modern laboratories, pilot plants and workshops. The organisation believes in its extensive intellectual capital – engineers,
scientists and technologists, all of the highest calibre – that forms the most valuable part of proposition to its customers. Mintek is also home to DST/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (NIC). The DST/Mintek NIC is a national facility that is geographically spread across the country (South Africa) and was established at Mintek in 2007 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The Mintek NIC activities are aimed at addressing the national priorities highlighted by both the national nanotechnology strategy and national research and development (R&D) strategy. The Mintek NIC structure was built on the foundation of the national system of innovations (NSI) to focus on driving South Africa’s transformation from a resource-based economy towards a knowledge-based economy using nanotechnology.
MORE INFO: https://www.mintek.co.za/
The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany, was established in 1991 as the first and only centre in the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres to be exclusively devoted to environmental research in a great variety of fields. It currently employs around 1100 people. Founded in response to the severe pollution prevailing in Central Germany, the UFZ has become a world-wide acknowledged centre of expertise in the field of effects of chemicals in the environment from environmental health to the landscape level.
MORE INFO: https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=33573
EMERGE is a consultancy company offering to private and public clients advanced and highly qualified scientific and technical support in the fields of occupational, consumer and environmental safety assessment of chemicals and new technologies (e.g. nano and biotechnologies). Its mission is to transfer to European consortia and the private sector the knowledge and experience of its founders acquired from over a decade of research and development of dose-response, exposure and risk modelling tools and software-based systems for risk assessment and management of chemicals and nano(bio)materias used in industrial settings, consumer products and medical applications.
MORE INFO: http://emerge.bg/
The National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of China is co-founded by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Ministry of Education. It is a subsidiary non-profit organization of CAS with a status of independent non-profit legal entity. The NCNST mainly consists of following branches, Laboratory for Nanodevice, Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety,
laboratory for Nanocharacterization, Laboratory for Nanostandardization, Laboratory for Nanomanufacture and applications, Testing Laboratory for Nanostructures, Nanofabrication Laboratory, Coordination Laboratories, a website and some databases for nanoscience.
The Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety belongs to the Key Laboratory of CAS and contributes to the basic researches on nanomedicine, nanobiotechnology and biosafety in nanoscience. There are extensive experiences in EU projects of FP6 & FP7&H2020 in related areas in Nanomedicince and nanosafety evaluation.
MORE INFO: http://english.nanoctr.cas.cn/
NCKU founded in 1931, is a research-led, public, comprehensive university in Tainan City, Taiwan. Considered one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan and one of the top ranked universities in Asia, it comprises 9 colleges (including engineering, medicine, science, and biotechnology), 43 departments, 39 institutes, and 14 research centers with an overall student body of 22,232. Over 50% of the students are master- or Ph.D.-level graduate students. About one-tenth of the overall students are international students from 61 countries, amounting to one-third of 200 sovereign states around the world. The 2018 QS World University Rankings rank NCKU 222nd overall in the world and #35 in Asian universities. The outstanding faculty and abundant teaching resources at NCKU have helped create extraordinary research
achievements in both quality and quantity terms.
MORE INFO: https://web.ncku.edu.tw/
Born from the merger of Université Pierre et Marie Curie and Université Paris Sorbonne, whose campuses are in the heart of Paris, Sorbonne Université covers all major disciplinary fields and offers new transversal academic and research programs. Sorbonne Université becomes a fully multidisciplinary research-intensive university with three faculties: Humanities and Social Sciences, Medicine and Sciences & Engineering.
With more than 53 400 students (among 10 200 international students), 4400 doctoral students and 6300 researchers, Sorbonne Université is one of the leading French universities.
The university is involved in numerous European and International partnership agreements and has France’s largest scientific library and infrastructures bringing together the best talent in a wide array of these disciplines. With 8,500 publications per year (approx. 10% of all publications in France), Sorbonne Université is a major player in international knowledge and innovation economy, offering transversal academic and research programs. In the present proposal the Theoretical Chemistry Lab will join the consortium. The know-how in modelling metals, oxides and biological molecules in different environments (materials, surfaces and interfaces, gas-phase, nanoparticles) perfectly fits the scope of NanoinformaTIX. Moreover the access to computational ressources and the close interaction with other departments (Medicine, Informatics, and Mathematics) is definitely an asset to the project.
MORE INFO: http://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/en
The UCO-Association Saint Yves is a multidisciplinary research and training organization with 12000 students in the five faculties (Sciences, Humanities, Theology, Education, Human and Social Sciences). The research team of UCO (MMS EA2160) has many years of experience performing ecotoxicological exposure and effects studies on emerging contaminants; nanomaterials using a variety of marine invertebrates under controlled laboratory conditions as well as in the field. The group is specialized in the response of aquatic organisms to natural and chemical stressors, namely metals (more than 20 years’ experience) and metal-based nanomaterials, among estuarine and marine invertebrate species with different biological traits (microalgae, annelids, bivalve molluscs). The lab has experience in the application of a multibiomarker approach using different levels of biological organization (genotoxicity, gene expression, oxidative-stress, metallothionein, behaviour, growth and reproduction) for the evaluation of effects of nanomaterials on aquatic invertebrate species.