EU NanoSafety Cluster
# EU NanoSafety Cluster

The EU NanoSafety Cluster (NSC) is a cluster of European Commission-funded projects in the funding programs FP6 (2002–2006), FP7 (2007–2013), and Horizon 2020 aka H2020 (2014–2020) and Horizon Europe framework programmes, aimed at harmonizing the research done in these projects. The cluster coordinates work done by the NanoSafety Cluster projects to study and establish the safety of nanomaterials. The coordination by the cluster is organized in half-yearly meetings and various working groups. An example of a result of the NanoSafety Cluster's harmonization was the prioritization of which nanomaterials to study. The NSC has become a reference actor for consumers' associations in the field.

## History

The NanoSafety Cluster followed in part from the NanoImpactNet project (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/218539) that ran from 2008 to 2012.

The NSC started in 2009 with FP6-funded projects such as CellNanoTox, DIPNA, NanoInteract, NANOTRANSPORT, and NANOSH, with initial coordination coming from FP7 NanoImpactNet, including the publication of the 1st NanoSafety Cluster Compendium in March 2010. The nature of the cluster has been that its membership evolves as projects end and new projects begin. Over 80 projects have part of the cluster during FP7, H2020 and now Horizon Europe. The activity areas have evolved over the years, reflecting the evolution of the field, with Safe and Sustainable by design and advanced materials being the latest foci reflecting policy developments such as the EU Green Deal.

One estimate of the total spending on nanosafety research in the scope of the EU NanoSaffety Cluster has been €137 million.

## Structure

The EU NanoSafety Cluster has nine working groups, each with different objectives and goals. WG2 (Hazard Identification) has four focus groups relating to immunosafety, marine ecotox, genotoxicity, and reprotoxicology. WG7 (Dissemination) has a sub-group dedicated to standardization and publishes the NanoSafety Cluster Newsletter. WG9 (Safe by Design and Industrial Innovation) has a sub-group called Industrial Innovation Liaison (i2L), that functions as a cross-linking working group to maximize various pilot-and innovation-led segments of the project.

* Materials (WG1)
* Hazard (WG2)
* Exposure (WG3)
* Database (WG4)
* Risk (WG5)
* Modelling (WG6)
* Dissemination (WG7)
* Systems Biology (WG8)
* Safe by Design and Industrial Innovation (WG9)

## Results

The European Chemicals Agency updated their European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) in 2018 with results from the Cluster, including use of software developed by the eNanoMapper project and data collected in projects like MARINA, NANoREG, and eNanoMapper.

