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. 

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 24–25 June 2025, the PLANETS project (in specific Martin Himly from PLUS – Task 8.2) co‑organised the 4th INTOXICOM workshop at the University of Birmingham (UK), in collaboration with projects such as PARC and initiatives including ELIXIR‑TeSS. Held under the title “Making Toxicology Educational Resources more FAIR”, the workshop brought together a broad community of experts to advance the FAIRification (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) of toxicology education and training.

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.

Insights from the PLANETS Flame Retardant Workshop (19-20.03.2025)

In the project PLANETS, the Flame Retardants Case Study focuses on the development of safer and more sustainable alternatives for flame retardants used in thermoplastics made from polystyrene and thermoset foams derived from polyurethane. 

To produce expanded polystyrene (EPS) materials, solid beads of polystyrene are used. These beads contain not only polystyrene but also additives required for the final product, such as dyes (coloring agents), nucleating agents, and flame retardants. During EPS production, the solid beads undergo a significant increase in volume due to the effect of a blowing agent and gentle heating. In contrast, polyurethane (PU) foam insulation does not require a heating process. PU foams form spontaneously when monomers, which already contain all necessary additives, are mixed together. This chemical process can be likened to baking a soufflé—only instead of eggs, sugar, and flour, a chemist “chef” uses various chemical ingredients. Just as a soufflé recipe must be carefully followed to achieve optimal results, the successful creation of polymeric foams relies on precise ingredient ratios, exact formulations and well-chosen process parameters. Alterations to an optimized recipe—for instance, changing the flame retardant—may adversely affect the final quality and performance of the foam. But don’t panic, unlike a soufflé, our insulating foams do not collapse.

On 5 December 2024, PLANETS was represented in Brussels by Simon Clavaguera of CEA at the 5th Stakeholder workshop on “Safe and sustainable by design”, held by the Joint Research Center.  
 
PLANETS partners Wouter Fransman of TNO and Wendel Wohlleben of BASF were also present, while other partners attended online.  

The main focus of the workshop was on the outcomes of the second reporting period of the SSbD framework, the lessons learnt and the ways forward before the revision of the framework in 2025.