From 23 to 25 September 2026, the Science Garden Festival returned for its second edition, building on the success of its inaugural event at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in 2024. Organized together with Styrian researchers, educational institutions and businesses, the festival celebrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) under the motto “ALL EYES ON STEM.” 

The festival is part of the Science Garden initiative, coordinated by innoregio styria and its network partners. Over the past two years, the project has provided more than 500 STEM experiences for children and young people aged 3 to 19 throughout Styria via the Science Garden platform. In collaboration with all nine Styrian universities, the Styrian Federation of Industry, the Styrian Chamber of Commerce, the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG), and the Association for Location and Society, the initiative aims to inspire the next generation by making mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology accessible, engaging and fun. 

In the facilities of the FH JOANNEUM in Graz, across 5,000 m2 and featuring around 100 interactive stations, the festival welcomed school classes, families and visitors of all ages to explore, experiment and discover the fascinating world of STEM through hands-on experiences. Around 5000 people attended the event. 

From 23 to 25 June 2026, the Foam Expo North America 2026 brought together more than 5,000 manufacturers, raw material suppliers and technical experts from across the foam and adhesives industry. The leading trade show provided a platform to explore the latest developments in materials, market trends, sustainability, regulations and advanced applications.

Fraunhofer ICT, PLANETS’ experts in foam applications, took the opportunity to represent the project at the event. At their booth, the team presented PLANETS and its work on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) alternatives, engaging with visitors and industry professionals to discuss the development and potential application of safer and more sustainable alternatives.

The event provided a valuable opportunity for PLANETS to connect with relevant industry stakeholders, exchange knowledge on current challenges and trends in the foam sector, and raise awareness of the project’s approach to developing and assessing SSbD alternatives.

From 15 to 17 June 2026, the ECOFRAM 2026 conference (The 5th International Conference on Eco-Friendly Flame Retardant Additives and Materials) took place in Luleå, Sweden, bringing together around 50 participants from research and scientific communities, industry, innovators and public authorities. The conference focused on the intersection of fire safety, sustainability and environmental responsibility, creating an interdisciplinary platform to discuss how flame-retardant materials can be made safer and more sustainable.

The conference addressed a wide range of topics, including bio-based and biodegradable flame retardants, recyclable polymers and composites, sustainable flame-retardant materials, eco-friendly coatings and textiles, environmental and toxicological impacts, and regulatory aspects.

Given the strong alignment with the PLANETS flame retardant case study and its Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) approach, the project was represented by Paul Barthel, from Fraunhofer ICT, who gave an oral presentation during the PL3 Plenary Session, entitled “Phosphoryl Carbamates as Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Flame Retardants”.

The presentation introduced the concept of SSbD, explaining its relevance for the development of safer and more sustainable materials, before presenting the PLANETS project and its work on alternative flame retardants. Particular attention was given to the Flame Retardants Case Study, and more specifically to the thermoplastic foams and the development of phosphoryl carbamates as potential SSbD alternative. The presentation covered research carried out at Fraunhofer ICT, including the synthesis of phosphoryl carbamates from CO₂, their flame retardant performance in thermoplastics, and their environmental profile compared with current benchmark flame retardants. The research also demonstrated how these materials can be considered within the broader SSbD framework of PLANETS.

ECOFRAM 2026 provided an excellent opportunity to disseminate the objectives and results of PLANETS to a specialised audience working on flame retardance and sustainable materials. To the presentation followed valuable discussions and exchanges with  researchers and industry representatives, providing an opportunity to gather feedback and perspectives relevant to the further development of SSbD alternatives in this case study.

The strong thematic connection between ECOFRAM and the PLANETS flame-retardant use case underlined the importance of bringing SSbD approaches into dialogue with the wider fire-safety and materials community.

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.

From 17 to 20 May 2026, the ACS Fire and Polymers 2026 workshop took place at the Westgate Hotel in San Diego, California, USA. Organised by the Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) of the American Chemical Society, the event brought together around 80 experts from chemistry, materials science and fire safety to discuss the latest advances and remaining challenges in this multidisciplinary field.

The workshop covered topics ranging from applied chemistry and chemical structure–property relationships to materials science and fire safety engineering, providing a valuable forum for researchers, industry representatives and other stakeholders to exchange knowledge and explore new approaches to fire-safe materials.

Carl-Christoph Höhne from Fraunhofer ICT represented the PLANETS project at the event with an oral presentation focusing on the project’s work on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) flame retardants. Entitled “Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Flame Retardants for Insulation Foams“, his presentation highlighted the need to move from SSbD concepts and guidelines towards their practical implementation in research and development. It introduced the PLANETS approach, which aims to develop practical and cost-efficient SSbD strategies covering the entire lifecycle of materials, from molecular design and formulation through to recycling and end-of-life management. A particular focus was placed on the PLANETS Flame Retardant case study, where a tiered assessment approach is being applied to support the development of safer and more sustainable flame retardant alternatives for insulation foams. The presentation showed current results from the development of several classes of SSbD flame retardants by academic and industrial partners. These alternatives are being investigated for different foam applications, including thermoplastic foams such as expandable polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polyethylene (XPE), as well as thermoset foams such as polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR).

The participation in ACS Fire and Polymers 2026 provided PLANETS with an opportunity to present its research to an international audience and to contribute to discussions on the future of safe, sustainable and high-performing flame-retardant materials. The event further strengthened the project’s engagement with the scientific and industrial communities working with polymers, fire safety and sustainability.

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

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 26 November 2025, PLANETS participated in an event jointly organised by Platform Green Chemistry (PGC) and SusChem-AT at the Vienna University of Technology. Bringing together stakeholders from policy, industry, research and the start-up community, the meeting focused on “From idea to impact: Start-ups and safe and sustainable by design for future-oriented chemistry.”

Clemens Wolf (BNN) introduced the evolving EU Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework, outlining its importance for developing safer and more sustainable advanced materials.

Martin Himly (PLUS) demonstrated how SSbD principles can be practically implemented to support innovation within green chemistry start-ups.

Clemens and Martin also conducted an informal live survey with the participants, to assess their level of knowledge on SSbD. Results available here.

Their presentation is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International in the PLANETS Community in Zenodo with DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17817072.

PLANETS was pleased to be part of this forward-looking exchange.

A warm thank you goes to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regional Development and Water Management (BMLUK) and the Austrian Environmental Agency for making this event possible.