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 (C&R) 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.

On 5 September 2025, the Polymer Additives Academy 2025 hosted its second (of four) session at the NHOW Hotel in Milan (Italy), bringing together more than 120 participants (80 on-site and 45 online). Organized by the PLANETS partner Greenchemicals, the event served as a platform for dialogue between industry experts, researchers, technicians, and university students, focusing on the latest advances in polymer additives and sustainability.

This second session was focused on styrenics polymers, concretely on insulating foams. The program day’s agenda covered a broad spectrum of topics, from the evolution of XPS foams and low-halogen flame retardants to Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) approaches, recycling strategies, and CAM criteria (Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM – Criteri Ambientali Minimi)). Contributions from academia, industry, and institutions highlighted both regulatory developments and technological solutions driving innovation in the sector.

Of course, PLANETS could not miss it and many partners attended the event: Carl-Christoph Höhne, Benedikt Bitzer (Fraunhofer ICT), Joséphine Steck, Marie Carriere, Nienke Ruijter (CEA), Laura Magnasco, Martina Riccio (RINA), Tobias Moss, Roberto Chinchilla Pardos (Budenheim), Wendel Wohlleben, Ayse Ay (BASF), Martin Himly, Sabine Hofer, Norbert Hofstätter (PLUS), Vanessa Alvear (AIMEN), Herbert Scharnagl, Leonhard Ritter (Steinbacher Dämmstoff GmbH), Thomas Hennequin (TNO), Poornima Nagesh (Radboud University), Anita Sosnowska, Szymon Zdybel (QSAR Lab), as well as the hosts of the event, Micaela Lorenzi, Sabrina Zambotti, Valentina Pelliccioli, Barbara Chinello, Sofia Luise, Davide Lecchi, Doris Lemi (Greenchemicals).

A highlight of the event was the oral presentation by Carl Christoph Höhne (Fraunhofer ICT) and Thomas Hennequin (TNO) entitled “Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Flame Retardants for Insulation Foams – the EU PLANETS Project Approach”, which provided valuable insights into how SSbD principles can be applied to flame retardants in styrenic insulation materials.

Both presentations are available in the PLANETS Community in Zenodo under DOI: 10.24406/publica-5377.

The strong interest confirmed the event’s success in reaching a highly relevant audience and showcasing collaborative European efforts in advancing sustainability in polymer additives.

Additionally, a hybrid meeting of the flame retardants case study of PLANETS was also organised, to discuss the status and next steps in the project.

Some impressions of the Polymers Academy and the internal meeting:

On 16 June 2025, Andreas Falk from BNN had the great pleasure of leading a workshop on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) for high school students at HTBLA Kaindorf in Austria.

After setting the stage about the three pillars of sustainability, the three dimensions of SSbD, its indicators and 5 steps, as a real-life SSbD implementation example Andreas introduced the case studies of the PLANETS project, which is developing safer and more sustainable alternatives for chemicals with surfactant, flame retardant or plasticising functionalities. All three of these chemical classes have a large chemical-market share, highlighting the importance of research and EU-funded projects for improving chemicals that affect our daily lives.

Many teenagers in the audience will be the engineers and scientists of tomorrow, future professionals who will play a big role for reaching the EU’s aim to become climate-neutral by 2050. With this in mind, the engagement of workshop’s participants in performing a practical exercise of Tier 1 SSbD assessment of an everyday consumer product assured us that, if we invest in educating our young people, we can shape the health of people and planet in the future!

On 23 June 2025, the NSC Working Group on Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD), Innovation & Regulation organised an online workshop on “SSbD scenarios for advanced and incremental innovations” as a collaboration effort among several EU-funded projects: AlChemiSSts, DESIDERATA, PLANETS and SUNRISE. 

Not all innovation scenarios in SMEs and industry are the same. Current JRC SSbD guidance and also the Portfolio Sustainability Assessment (PSA) / Cefic concepts leave room for tailoring the SSbD approach within a tiered framework. Scenarios support the tailoring, such that SSbD is not just another burden, but increases overall competitiveness. 

But how should a SSbD scenario be described? This was exactly the aim of this first workshop.  

The workshop tested aspects that described a scenario by knowledge that is available at early innovation stages withreal-world cases kindly provided by innovators from the projects AlChemiSSts, DESIDERATA, PLANETS and SUNRISE. Shortlisted aspects included the professional environment (start-up, SME or industry), the sector of application (B2B vs B2C), the innovative height (incremental or advanced), R&D project budget, and other aspects that would be known to the innovator before starting any lab work.

EUIndTech2025 is the new EU flagship event, in which the two cyclical events, “Conference on Industrial Technologies” and “EuroNanoForum” are merged. This year it was done during the Polish presidency of the EU Council in Krakow, Poland. The EUIndTech2025 brought together more than 800 stakeholders from academia, research organizations, industry, NGOs and policymakers to discuss the state-of-the-art technologies, challenges and trends. 

BNN’s CEO Andreas Falk in his role as part of NSC’s coordination team and as partner in PLANETS, organised a NSC Session, having Prof. Martin Himly (PLUS) (chair of the NSC Working Group on Education and partner in PLANETS) as moderator and Prof. Eva Valsami-Jones (UoB) (member of NSC’s Coordination Team) as speakers in key roles of the session. Together with other members of the NSC and further stakeholders they were on stage at EUIndTech25 for the NSC-session entitled “Designing Safe and Sustainable Materials and Chemicals – SSbD Implementation and Digitalization” on June 2nd, 2025. 

The NSC session addressed the importance of integrated approaches, data-related expectations, advantages and challenges for ultimately balancing ecological, societal, and economic goals for a more sustainable future. The session was moderated by Martin Himly with oral presentations given by Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Andreas Künkel (BASF) and Garbine Guiu Etxeberria (EC, DG RTD). For the panel discussion the speakers were joined by Andreas Falk, Daniel Hubert (VisterNova), Peter Klein (FhG) and Mary B. Walsh (Honeywell).  

As a follow-up of the discussions during the session, the panellists formulated 3 paragraphs as output of the session, which will be part of the Malopolska Declaration. 

NSC members highlighted during the NSC session the work done within the NSC projects, PLANETS among others, to a very engaged audience in Krakow.