Nanosafety Training School 2022 Summary

Written By Cathrin Cailliau

SUNSHINE was the main organiser of the Nanosafety Training School in Venice, 15–20 May 2022, in Venice, Italy. This year's theme was "Towards Safe and Sustainable by Design Advanced (Nano)Materials".
Reflections from the NanoSafety Training School in Venice, Santa Lucia, Italy

Towards Safe and Sustainable by Design Advanced (Nano)Materials

From 15–20 May 2022, around 120 scientists from the European Nanosafety Cluster (NSC) represented by 15 projects met in Venice to offer the annual Nanosafety Training School – this year, as a hybrid event and under the subtitle “Towards Safe and Sustainable by Design Advanced (Nano)Materials”. With around 70 participants gathering on-site (plus 49 who joined online), 22 interactive educational sessions were performed covering the whole variety of current nanosafety research: The overarching motto of the training school was “Transition from Safe-by-Design to Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design of advanced (nano)materials”, as we currently have arrived at the breaking point were the knowledge on genuine nanomaterials that has been achieved during the past two decades within the nanosciences community is now infiltrating emerging research fields beyond (advanced materials, nanomedicine, microplastics, sustNanosafety Training School 2022ainable chemistry, etc.). In line with the above-mentioned motto, the subjects “What they (nanoparticles) are”, “Where they go” and “What they do” were investigated from different perspectives, including also the views of important stakeholders such as industry, regulators and society. These guiding questions are derived from the GRACIOUS framework for grouping of nanomaterials and include topics such as similarity assessment (grouping) and read-across approaches, but also extend to risk assessment and management as well as risk governance or FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data management and data quality assessment. The topics were presented by 50 renowned researchers from the nanosafety community of Europe and the US in an interactive manner.

Group photo close to the venue

The speakers and participants had the chance for lively discussions inside the beautiful and traditional Auditorium Santa Margherita of the Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. Thanks to a professional technical team, participants joining online could be integrated well in the sessions. The ones attending life in Venice additionally could enjoy plenty of networking opportunities under the Italian sun in the coffee and lunch breaks. One evening, the attendees moved away from nano topics and instead learned about the history of Venice on a guided city tour. Overall, the participants were very happy with school, some of their highlights include:

  • “Getting different perspectives on nanosafety”

  • “Organisation was excellent”, “Quality and organisation”

  • “Venue is exceptional”

  • “The community”

  • “Networking”, “Meeting other young scientists”

  • “Food, location and social activities”

This year’s main organiser was the SUNSHINE project, together with partners from ASINA, CHARISMA, DIAGONAL, HARMLESS, NanoInformaTIX, SABYDOMA, SAbyNA and SbD4Nano. 

However, the school would not have been possible without further support and contributions from CEINT, Gov4Nano, NanoCommons, NANORIGO, NanoSolveIT, RISKGONE, and the EU NanoSafety Cluster.

The scientific and organising committees thank everyone for their support and hope to meet again for the next Nanosafety Training School on the islands of Venice in 2023.


Contacts

For a full list of the scientific and organising committees and further information about the School, please refer to the event page here. The full programme including all details on the presenters, trainers and the content of the session is available here. Educational resources can be found here:

  • The presentation slides are linked under the titles of the full event programme here.

  • Once available in July, the session recordings can be found on the project pages (e.g. SUNSHINE’s e-learning page).

These projects have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952924 (SUNSHINE), No  862444 (ASINA), No 952921 (CHARISMA), No  953152 (DIAGONAL), No  953183 (HARMLESS),  No 814426 (NanoInformaTIX), No 862296 (SABYDOMA), No 862419 (SAbyNA), No 862195 (SbD4Nano), No 814401 (Gov4Nano), No 731032 (NanoCommons), No  814530 (NANORIGO), No 814572 (NanoSolveIT), No 814425 (RISKGONE).

The brand new 2023 edition is currently under preparation! Stay tuned and save the date: 15–19 May, Venice, Italy. New information will be added to the event page once available.

Cathrin Cailliau
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