From 6 to 9 September 2026, the Biopartitioning and Purification Conference (BPP 2026) brought together in Bled (Slovenia) experts from academia and industry to exchange insights on the latest advances in bioseparation, purification, and sustainable bioprocessing.

The conference explored emerging topics including AI-driven process optimisation, biomass processing and waste valorisation, novel bioproducts, life cycle assessment, and regulatory frameworks. Through keynote lectures, presentations, posters, round-table discussion, and networking, the BPP 2026 provided a good platform for sharing knowledge, showcasing innovations, and building new collaborations for the future of sustainable bioprocessing.

On the last day of the conference, 9 September, Martin Himly (PLUS) gave an oral presentation within the SSbD workshop entitled ‘Regulatory and Sustainability Considerations. In his presentation, Martin reported on the first lessons from putting Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) into practice across the project’s three industrial value chains: flame retardants, surfactants, and plasticizers. He also covered learnings from the scoping, Tier 1/simplified, and Tier 2/intermediate assessments phases, and experiences with data confidentiality in regards to Digital Product Passport (DPP) development.

Thank you to the organisers of the conference for giving us the opportunity of being part of the conference, and specially of the SSbD session, jointly organised by the sister projects TOXBOX and SSbD4CheM.

Relevant links:

• Event website
• Agenda
• Book of abstracts

See below for insights into the conference. More pictures are available here. Photo credits go to Beatriz Alfaro and Boris Pretnar.

On 17th June 2026, the PLANETS project contributed to the stakeholder dialogue on data-driven Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD)-driven materials development with its active participation in the session “Advanced Materials: How to Go from Data to Design through the Scope of SSbD?”, organized by the CheMatSustain project following its 5th General Assembly in Valencia. The event brought together experts from EU research projects, industry, and academia to explore how data, databases, artificial intelligence (AI), and Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) principles can accelerate innovation in advanced materials.

The event joint representatives from several EU project, including AlChemiSSts, INTEGRANO, PLANETS, SSbD4CheM, SUNRISE, and TOXBOX, creating a valuable platform for clustering on SSbD-related aspects relevant for its implementation and operationalisation, exchanging knowledge and identifying opportunities for collaboration across the SSbD community.

Martin Himly (PLUS) contributed to the session “SSbD through Databases and AI Toolboxes” with an insight into the PLANETS project, on the implementation of the SSbD scoping method in Tier 1 and Tier 2 assessments within the 3 industrial value chains of the project. He further presented lessons learned and hinted on assets for amendment in the specific SSbD conduct from the perspective of the PLANETS innovation cases. A strong focus was put on data-related issues, and their complications in terms of confidentiality limiting the hand-over of SSbD results within value chains as the current activity within PLANETS is to identify the minimal data sets deriving from SSbD conduct on the three innovation cases with relevance for reporting in potential future Digital Product Passports (DPP), which will build another deliverable of the project. These topics raised lots of attention in the Data-2-Design Workshop and initiated a vigorous discussion with the audience.

PLANETS herewith generated a timely contribution to the scientific discourse with a strong link to industrial implementation. Overall, the event demonstrated how all these projects contribute to the development of practical solutions that help researchers, innovators, and industry stakeholders make better-informed decisions throughout the materials innovation lifecycle and deepen the efforts towards creating a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and well quality-assured European joint “(Meta)data for SSbD” platform.

Relevant links:

• Agenda
• Details about the workshop
• Recap of the event on the CheMatSustain website

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, EU 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.

PLANETS partners from CEA, TNO, BASF, and BNN actively contributed to the conference by presenting research related to the project, as well as best practices in scientific communication.

• Katharina Lang-Hogrefe (BNN) gave an oral presentation on importance of scientific communication to ensure a high level of engagement, entitled “Clear, Concise, and Complete: Finding the Sweet Spot for Detail and Simplification in Science Communication“, on 18 May in the Session “6.10 – Translating Complexity – The Role Science Communication Plays in Generating Lasting Societal Impact“. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20345940. 
• Susan Dekkers (TNO) gave an oral presentation, entitled “Integrated Methodology and Decision Support System for Safe and Sustainable Substitution“, on 20 May.
• Joséphine Steck (CEA) presented a poster about PLANETS’ SSbD Wordbook, entitled “Common Language for Safe and Sustainable by Design: One Wordbook to Understand Them All”, on 21 May. She explained that it is a carefully selection of terms and definitions covering safety, sustainability, methodological tools, indicators, and regulatory aspects relevant to SSbD which aims to create a common understanding of key concepts for the successful implementation of the SSbD approach.
• Joséphine Steck (CEA) delivered an oral presentation about the PLANETS’s Workflow on 21 May. Under the title “Operationalising Safe and Sustainable by Design for Industry: Mapping, Coordinating, and Structuring Chemical and Material Innovation with the PLANETS Workflow”, she explained that the PLANETS’ Workflow is co-developed by a multidisciplinary team through iterative cycles, tackling key SSbD challenges. Drawing on insights from the literature, the resulting structure includes two main phases (scoping and assessment) supported by an educational kit.  The assessment phase is further subdivided into simplified, intermediate, and full tiers, enabling a progressive and adaptable evaluation process. The overall process requires adapting to varying numbers of alternatives, potentially clustering similar options for feasibility. SSbD ambassadors to each CS supported coordination, stakeholder engagement facilitation, and integration of safety and sustainability from the start.
• Wendel Wohlleben (former BASF) presented, on 21 May a poster about the NSC workshops on SSbD scenarios organised in 2025. Title of the poster: “Tailoring, Tiering and Archetypal Scenarios: Outcome of two Workshops on SSbD Scenarios in the Network for Safe and Sustainable Chemicals & Materials (NSC)” .

Additionally, PLANETS coordinator organised an informal meeting with the RESILIENCE-24 sister projects to discuss “day-by-day” activities in the projects and how to increase collaboration in selected topics.

The participation in SETAC Europe 2026 provided an important opportunity for PLANETS partners to disseminate research outcomes, engage with experts, and strengthen collaboration. The posters and oral presentations generated valuable scientific discussions around SSbD and scientific communication. The event also contributed to increasing the visibility of the project and fostering future networking and collaboration opportunities.

Relevant links:

• Event website
• Programme
• Book of abstracts

On 11th May 2026, PLANETS 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 PLANETS 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, 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.

PLANETS was represented by Simon Clavaguera, Denilson Da Silva Perez (CEA, as deputies of Joséphine Steck), Catherine Colin (IPC), Martin Himly (PLUS), and Andreas Falk (BNN, and also in his role as part of the NSC coordination team). During the networking event, Denilson delivered an oral presentation showcasing the PLANETS project, as part of a cluster of projects (including the RES-24 sister projects RADAR and AlChemiSSt) focused on substituting hazardous substances with safer alternatives, one of the key objectives of the EU chemicals policy framework, while representatives from PARC pointed out the PLANETS project’s leading role in educating the field in SSbD.

The participation in both events provided valuable opportunities to strengthen connections with other Horizon Europe projects (more than 30 SSbD-related HE projects attended the event) and key stakeholders. In particular, the networking event fostered discussions on future collaboration and contributed to building a stronger, better connected SSbD ecosystem across Europe.

PLANETS remains committed to supporting the implementation of the SSbD framework and to contributing to a safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials landscape, in particular through its strong involvement with industry.

Following up from the 1st NSC workshop on “SSbD scenarios for advanced and incremental innovations” (23 June 2025), the NSC Working Group on Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD), Innovation & Regulation organised a virtual 2nd NSC workshop on SSbD Scenarios on 5th December 2025. Similarly as the first workshop, this second one was prepared as a collaborative effort among several EU-funded projects: DESIDERATA,  PLANETS, SSbD4CheM, and SUNRISE.

The 1st NSC scenarios workshop laid the basis by the description of a scenario by aspects of novelty, exposure, severity, (environmental) sustainability, (economic) scope and immediacy. Case studies enabled a refinement of the scenario description (Wohlleben et al. 2025). The concept of a scenario was integrated by JRC into the revised SSbD Framework, where it serves as a bridge between the SSbD scoping and a tailored safety and sustainability assessment (reproduced in lower figure). It was described as “a specific and real set of conditions (scoping analysis elements) that define the context in which the SSbD assessment is carried out.”(Garmendia Aguirre et al. 2025). 

This 2nd NSC scenarios workshop explored how to describe an SSbD scenario, the tailoring rules related, as well as how to select which tailored approach fits best a specific innovation case. Examples of real-world cases were provided by innovators from the projects DESIDERATA, PLANETS, SSbD4CheM, and SUNRISE. In breakout sessions moderated teams went through the respective cases to define the SSbD maturity, pull and push, expected commercial value, probability of success (technical and commercial) and ultimately the return on investment that additional SSbD would expect. Obtained results were compared to six proposedly archetypal SSbD scenarios. This business-focussed algorithm enables defining a tailored SSbD in a more straight-forward manner. Such an approach, based on specifications collected during scoping, could argue for more or less extensive SSbD assessment to be implemented for different innovation cases, providing arguments for innovators in their discussion with management. 

Across three days, the summit created a collaborative platform to exchange knowledge and showcase tools, methodologies, and case studies; discussions highlighted key challenges for SSbD implementation, including limited awareness—particularly among SMEs—data gaps, methodological complexity, and unclear economic incentives. Stakeholders emphasized the need for pragmatic, user-friendly tools, improved data sharing, and stronger links between research, regulation, and industry.

Sessions and roundtables addressed the perspectives of initiators, legislators, regulators, and implementors. A recurring message was the importance of shifting from reactive compliance to proactive, design-led innovation. Solutions presented by EU projects demonstrated how digital tools, AI, tiered assessment strategies, and life-cycle thinking can support early-stage decision-making and reduce risks and costs.

The summit also underlined the importance of regulatory preparedness, trusted environments, and cross-sector collaboration. Concepts such as regulatory sandboxes, standardized data formats, and the role of SSbD ambassadors emerged as key enablers for wider adoption.

ANTHOS’26 concluded with a forward-looking discussion stressing the need for incentives, education, and coordinated action to scale SSbD. The event successfully strengthened collaboration across the community and set the stage for future innovation in safe and sustainable materials.

On 25 November 2025, the Collab4Resilience (C4R) network met for its second online networking workshop. 17 participants representing 9 EU-funded projects gather to further build on the KOM from April 2025, and aiming to strengthen collaboration between projects and enhance their visibility and outreach activities.

The meeting was opened by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, coordinator of the CheMatSustain project and leader of the initiative. They provided a brief overview of the network’s progress to date and recent developments within CheMatSustain. This was followed by a short presentation from the University of Bologna introducing the CheMatSustain Facility, the project’s key output, launched in 2025.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the “What We’re Proud Of” round, during which each project highlighted recent developments and achievements. Afterthat, we dive into a more interactive session with a digital mural to gather ideas for future communication activities—ranging from social media initiatives to joint events—as well as a knowledge-sharing activity to identify tangible collaboration opportunities.

The workshop concluded with a forward-looking discussion on plans for 2026, setting out practical next steps to strengthen communication, share resources, and foster mutual support.

Overall, the event demonstrated strong interest in further developing the community. 

Agenda of the meeting.

From 10-12 November 2025, PLANETS’ partners took part in the 2nd Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Conference – SSbD25, held in Zurich, Switzerland. The event, organised by IRISS project – the International SSbD Community – and Empa, brought together researchers, industry representatives, and policymakers to exchange knowledge and advance the implementation of SSbD principles across sectors.

The PLANETS consortium was well represented, with partners including Sébastien Artous (CEA), Ayse Ay and Wendel Wohlleben (BASF), as well as Benjamin Punz and Martin Himly (PLUS).

During the conference, Ayse Ay presented a poster on the SSbD assessment of alternative flame retardants for use in plastic insulation foams, showcasing PLANETS’ contribution to developing safer and more sustainable materials. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17593867.

Wendel gave an oral presentation entitled “Innovators tailor the SSbD implementation via SSbD scenarios“. In his presentation, Wendel explained how innovators can adapt SSbD to their specific context. It introduces rules for tailoring SSbD based on key scoping factors—novelty, sector, and innovation goals—and economic aspects such as R&D budget, maturity, and expected value. From these, archetypal scenarios arederived that reveal where economic incentives support tailored SSbD approaches, offering clear guidance for innovators.

It was a great opportunity to reconnect with the broader SSbD community, share insights, and discuss the path forward towards sustainable innovation.

A big thank you to the organisers for an inspiring event – we’re already looking forward to next year’s edition!

Conference programm available here.

Innovating with Purpose: A Hands-on Journey into Functional, Safe and Sustainable Advanced Materials

Every year, usually, a vibrant community of young researchers and seasoned experts convenes in the historic centre of Venice for the Venice School. The 13th edition of the Venice Training School took place from 9th to 13th June 2025 to focus on advancing knowledge and practice in Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) assessment and decision-making for advanced materials (AdMa) and chemicals, and explore cutting-edge methodologies for ensuring the safety, functionality, and sustainability of innovative materials.