The NSC Training group 5th meeting, held on 20 July 2016, showed good progress in terms of coordination of the ongoing training activities of the NSC projects and initiated a 
discussion about a new activity of the group.
You can find here the summary of the teleconference.
New Tools and Approaches for Nanomaterial Safety Assessment
A joint conference organized by
NANOSOLUTIONS, SUN, NanoMILE, GUIDEnano and eNanoMapper
Hotel Barceló Málaga, Spain
Tuesday 7h – Thursday 9th February 2017
About the conference
Jointly organized by five major FP7 projects NANOSOLUTIONS, SUN, NanoMILE, GUIDEnano and eNanoMapper, the conference aims at presenting the main results achieved in the course of the projects fostering a discussion about their impact in the nanosafety field and possibilities for future research programmes.
Who?
The conference welcomes consortium partners from the organizing projects, as well as representatives from other EU projects, industry, government, civil society and media.
Conference highlights
Conference topics
Stakeholders workshop
The conference will be wrapped up with a stakeholder workshop which will provide a platform for an open discussion with interested stakeholders that could ultimately guide the research needs that should be addressed in future projects.
Save the date 7th – 9th February 2017 on your calendar!
For more information please visit: www.nmsaconference.eu
Society for Risk Analysis
Policy Forum
Risk Governance for Key Enabling Technologies
Wednesday 1st – Friday 3rd March 2017
Venice, Italy
About the Forum
The continued development and growing opportunities for commercialization of key enabling technologies (e.g., nanotechnology, synthetic biology, biomaterials) raises fundamental environmental health and safety (EHS) challenges for regulators in various governments. Even though existing practices for risk assessment and management (RA&M) 
are applicable to these technologies, their implementation requires information that is difficult to obtain given the limited availability of quantitative data to populate models corresponding to material exposure, hazard, and consequences. To facilitate regulatory decision making for emerging technology research and innovation and account for corresponding EHS risks, a comprehensive risk governance (RG) framework must account for both qualitative and quantitative data under high uncertainty and local/regional requirements for technology governance.
This Forum will provide discussion of current initiatives that are centered on refining the risk governance of emerging technologies through the integration of traditional risk analytic tools alongside considerations of social and economic concerns. Such an approach will help account for objective and subjective information alike in order to foster effective governance for emerging technologies with uncertain and potentially consequential risks. The Forum will develop summaries of current activities of multiple efforts in the United States, European Union, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere, and will indicate opportunities for future meetings and research.
Save the date 1st – 3rd March 2017 on your calendar!
Expect soon more information about the event here!
Bernd Nowack presented the SUN Project during Nanotech 2016. For more information please visit nanotechweb.org.
SUN survey on priorities in sustainable development of nanomaterials
Please fill out a short online questionnaire soliciting your views on the relative importance of different aspects of risk assessment and sustainable development of nanomaterials based products. This should take about 10-15 minutes. The aspects include occupational and consumer health risks, impacts on public health and environment, life cycle assessment, environmental, economic and social benefits and risks.
Your contribution would be a great help in establishing relative weights of these aspects among industrial, regulatory and insurance sector professionals interested in safe and sustainable governance of nanomaterials in the framework of the SUN project.
Thank you in advance for completing the survey. Click here to take the survey now.
Contact Ineke Malsch at postbus@malsch.demon.nl if you have any questions or comments.
The international Workshop among experts from Europe, Russia, UK and USA titled “Lifecycle impacts of Copper nanomaterials released from timber preserving impregnations” 
recentlyheld in Venice, Italy brought together leading researchers to discuss current results on the topics of release, fate, exposure, effects, lifecycle impacts and health risks of the Cu nanomaterials, covering both experimental and modeling approaches.
The electronic Workshop Proceedings containing extended abstracts of the studies presented during the meeting are available to download from here.
SUN hosted successfully the 4th NSC Training Subgroup meeting. The meeting showed good progress in terms of creating an arena to present upcoming confirmed events and discuss potential collaboration among projects for future ideas thus enhancing their joint dissemination efforts.
You can find here the summary of the teleconference held on 6 April, 2016.
The manuscript “LICARA nanoSCAN – A tool for the self-assessment of benefits and risks of nanoproducts” representing the first tier of the SUN decision support system is now published in the journal Environment International.
You can find here the full publication: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412016300575.
The 4th teleconference of the NSC Training Subgroup will take place on Wednesday 6 April 2016, 11:00 am CET.
If you wish to join and haven’t received login details please send a request to info@sun-fp7.eu.
SUN fosters international dialogue among top researchers, professionals and young scientists in the field of Nanotechnologies
The EU FP7 SUN Sustainable Nanotechnologies Project has successfully hosted a week of high ranking, international nanotechnology events in Venice in the period 22 – 29 January 2016.
The week started with the international Workshop among experts from Europe, Russia, UK and USA titled “Lifecycle impacts of Copper nanomaterials released from timber preserving impregnations”. Organized by the EU FP7 SUN and ECONANOSORB projects, the Workshop brought together leading researchers to discuss the project results on the topics of release, fate, exposure, effects, lifecycle impacts and health risks of the Cu nanomaterials, covering both experimental and modeling approaches. 
“In contrast to the significant benefits from using Cu nanomaterials in timber preserving impregnations, there are considerable societal concerns regarding their environmental impacts and human health risks. This workshop has successfully brought together results from the projects investigating the environmental impacts and health risks of Cu nanomaterials used in timber preserving impregnations”, says Dr. Danail Hristozov, Principal Investigator of the SUN project.
The week continued with the 2nd Sustainable nanotechnology school: a practical approach for understanding the environmental, health and safety implications of manufactured nanomaterials to foster their sustainable applications. The School was designed to revisit and complement the knowledge transferred during its previous edition with a strong focus on laboratory and modelling exercises. Attendees from 18 countries (3 continents) were exposed to top experts working in the fields of environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks and industrial applications of nanomaterials. Organized by the major European EU FP7 SUN project, ECNONOSORB and the MODENA Cost Action, the School proofed to be a very successful collaboration among these initiatives but has also made an important contribution to the training of the new generation of creative and innovative young researchers.
One of the delegates, Neil Hunt from The REACH Centre, UK says: “The School has been a unique opportunity for me as an industry representative, bringing together regulators, industry and academia and to learn about the latest available experimental and modelling approaches for sustainability of nanotechnology and risk governance.”
The busy week concluded with the Roundtable “From nano risk management to risk governance: methods and tools” held on 28 March 2016 at the stately sites of University Ca’ Foscari Venice. Co-organized and supported by the SUN project, Society for Risk Analysis and EU NanoSafety Cluster, the meeting provided a forum for cross-fertilization of current initiatives designed to foster progression of risk assessment and management towards risk governance through integration of traditional risk management tools with risk governance approaches. The participants reviewed the progress of current activities of multiple efforts in the USA and EU and identified areas for future collaboration.
To find out more about the SUN project, go to www.sun-fp7.eu.
About SUN
SUN – Sustainable Nanotechnologies Project – an EU FP7 project, aiming to develop strategies for safe production, handling and disposal covering the complete lifecycle of nano-enabled products and to include the results into practical guidelines for industries.