Over 30 participants came together at the CheMatSustain kick-off meeting in Hamburg. Partners from eight different countries came together to discuss innovative methods for the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials.
The project CheMatSustain addresses the topic “Implementing Innovative Methods for Safety and Sustainability Assessments of Chemicals and Materials Particularly at Nano Level in the European Union”. The project started officially in January 2024 and will be running for four years, until the end of 2027. The project has been funded by the European Union Horizon Europe Programme and a strong consortium of 10 partners and 1 associated partner was formed. While most of the partners are from EU countries, 1 associate partner represents the United Kingdom. During the project duration, the consortium together with their stakeholders, will perform innovative studies and tests on chemicals and nanomaterials to reach the main objective:
“To identify, develop, test and deploy a set of tools to improve and harmonise screening and testing protocols, strategies, and hazard, risk and sustainability assessments of a sample of chemicals and (nano)materials in the European Union by developing robust, reliable and fast (test) methods and models, including high-throughput and in silico models, with the goal of improving their safety and sustainability.”
The Kick off Meeting took place on the 25th and 26th of January in Hamburg, Germany. All partners attended the meeting and started working on the specific objectives of the project. The advisory board members and sister projects running under the same call joined the meeting online and introduced their projects to the consortium to identify future collaboration opportunities.
The first day of the meeting started with a keynote speech from the EU Officer responsible for the project followed by the introduction of each of the eight work packages by their respective leaders. This ensured that all partners understood the topic tackled in the different work packages and fostered better collaboration between the partners. Additionally, an introduction to financial management and reporting was covered by the financial officer of the coordinator.
During the second day of the meeting, the sister projects were invited to join the meeting virtually. Representatives from SSbD4CheM and Chiasma introduced their work and engaged in fruitful discussions with the CheMatSustain consortium. In the second part of the day, the partners organised small working groups to discuss the next steps of the project.
The Kick-off meeting was a success in multiple aspects, as it not only brought together partners and fostered networking between members, but also identified areas of synergy between sister projects, where different activities intersect, and can mutually support each other.
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