The coming years are expected to bring rapid changes in the nanotechnology regulatory landscape, with the establishment of a new framework for nano-risk governance, in silico approaches for characterisation and risk assessment of nanomaterials, and novel procedures for the early identification and management of nanomaterial risks. In this context, Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) emerges as a powerful preventive approach to support the development of safe and sustainable (SSbD) nanotechnology-based products and processes throughout the life cycle. This paper summarises the work undertaken to develop a blueprint for the deployment and operation of a permanent European Centre of collaborating laboratories and research organisations supporting safe innovation in nanotechnologies. The proposed entity, referred to as “the Centre”, will establish a ‘one-stop shop’ for nanosafety-related services and a central contact point for addressing stakeholder questions about nanosafety. Its operation will rely on significant business, legal and market knowledge, as well as other tools developed and acquired through the EU-funded EC4SafeNano project and subsequent ongoing activities. The proposed blueprint adopts a demand-driven service update scheme to allow the necessary vigilance and flexibility to identify opportunities and adjust its activities and services in the rapidly evolving regulatory and nano risk governance landscape. The proposed Centre will play a major role as a conduit to transfer scientific knowledge between the research and commercial laboratories or consultants able to provide high quality nanosafety services, and the end-users of such services (e.g., industry, SMEs, consultancy firms, and regulatory authorities). The Centre will harmonise service provision, and bring novel risk assessment and management approaches, e.g. in silico methodologies, closer to practice, notably through SbD/SSbD, and decisively support safe and sustainable innovation of industrial production in the nanotechnology industry according to the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

Aluminum salts, developed almost a century ago, remain the most commonly used adjuvant for licensed human vaccines. Compared to more recently developed vaccine adjuvants, aluminum adjuvants such as Alhydrogel are heterogeneous in nature, consisting of 1–10 micrometer-sized aggregates of nanoparticle aluminum oxyhydroxide fibers. To determine whether the particle size and aggregated state of aluminum oxyhydroxide affects its adjuvant activity, we developed a scalable, top-down process to produce stable nanoparticles (nanoalum) from the clinical adjuvant Alhydrogel by including poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) polymer as a stabilizing agent. Surprisingly, the PAA:nanoalum adjuvant elicited a robust TH1 immune response characterized by antigen-specific CD4+ T cells expressing IFN-γ and TNF, as well as high IgG2 titers, whereas the parent Alhydrogel and PAA elicited modest TH2 immunity characterized by IgG1 antibodies. ASC, NLRP3 and the IL-18R were all essential for TH1 induction, indicating an essential role of the inflammasome in this adjuvant’s activity. Compared to microparticle Alhydrogel this nanoalum adjuvant provided superior immunogenicity and increased protective efficacy against lethal influenza challenge. Therefore PAA:nanoalum represents a new class of alum adjuvant that preferentially enhances TH1 immunity to vaccine antigens. This adjuvant may be widely beneficial to vaccines for which TH1 immunity is important, including tuberculosis, pertussis, and malaria.

Toxic organics, pharmaceuticals and antibiotics are currently only partially or not at all removed from wastewater, as today’s wastewater treatment will only partly degrade those substances. Therefore, those substances will be found in the effluent from wastewater treatment plants and this can be a threat to both human health and aquatic species.

Photocatalytic membranes show great promise as a method to combat the challenge of toxic organics in wastewater. The novel photocatalytic membrane developed in the project was shown to photocatalytically decompose organic compounds such as pharmaceutical residues and dyes in both tap water and treated effluent from a membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater treatment process. Several parameters affecting the affinity of the pharmaceuticals to the membrane surface, such as the hydrophobicity and pKa of the pharmaceuticals and the pH of the water, were shown to affect the efficacy of the removal.

Finally, when irradiated with UV light the photocatalytic membrane showed promise of keeping high flux and reducing downtime by lengthening the cleaning cycle.

The preparation of oil-in-water (o/w) nanoemulsions stabilized with silica nanoparticle sols has been investigated. The emulsification was performed using a high shear homogenizer (Microfluidizer TM processor, Microfluidics, USA). The effect of different processing conditions on the droplet size distribution and stability was investigated in emulsions prepared using different types of oils, oil concentration and particle/oil ratios. It was the ability of the particles to attach to, and stabilize the newly created interface, rather than their ability to lower the interfacial tension, what proved important for the drop size of the resulting emulsions. Changes in drop size distribution with time, attributed to Ostwald ripening effects, were observed for the more soluble oils, while stable nanoemulsions with droplet size of ~100-200. nm could be produced using a virtually water-insoluble oil such as squalene.

Steel is one of the most widely used construction material. It is extensively applied in building, for automotive and household applications, in packaging, and many other fields. The world steel production reached some 1.55 billion tons in 2012. About half of the that amount is produced as flat steel, which is by definition (DIN EN 10079) a product that is rectangular shaped, where the width is much bigger than its thickness and – it can be added – is formed in a rolling processes. According to DIN 8583, rolling is a forming process under pressure, where the workpiece is formed between two or more rotating tools.

Adhesion in the wheel-rail contact is a key factor determining stable running conditions and safety during train driving and braking. This paper presents an experiment performed in a mini-traction machine to simulate the problems of low adhesion in the wheel-rail contact. Tests were conducted under dry conditions and using water or oil as lubricants to study the influence of surface roughness on the adhesion coefficient. The results indicate that the adhesion coefficient can be reduced to as low as 0.02 for smooth surfaces lubricated with water. For rougher contact surfaces, the water-lubricated tests indicate a higher adhesion coefficient than do oil-lubricated ones, but also a clear dependence on water temperature. The oil-lubricated tests indicate a very slight dependence of the adhesion coefficient on variation in rolling speed, temperature, and surface roughness.