nanoIndEx will determine personal exposure to MNMs and thoroughly investigate the possibilities of personal monitors and samplers. Those samplers and monitors, identified as suitable for assessing personal exposure to MNMs will be scrutinized in laboratory and field studies to study their accuracy and the comparability of the different samplers and monitors and to search for possible correlations between metrics. All samplers and monitors that qualified during the lab-studies will be used in field studies in at least ten different nanotechnology workplaces. These field surveys will provide information on the field applicability and comparability of the instruments and generate a large data set on personal exposure to MNMs that will be provided to existing exposure databases. The experiences from the laboratory and field studies will feed into standard operation procedures and guidance documents on the proper use of the monitors and samplers and for data evaluation. All these documents will be made publicly available and distributed to stakeholders as well as national and international harmonization and standardization activities.

Gov4Nano will design and establish a well-positioned and broadly supported Nano Risk Governance Council (NRGC). Organizing, connecting and engaging are key activities in Gov4Nano and its creation of a sustainable NRGC. Gov4Nano will develop an operational trans disciplinary Nano Risk Governance Model (NRGM) for nanotechnologies, building on an established governance framework developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). Engaging stakeholders (including regulators) to proactively address nano-specific safety and seek dialogue for joint activities. NRGC and its precursor project Gov4Nano will engage, in order to support these activities, with the broad variety of stakeholders across all relevant nano-disciplines (chemical, biocides, food and feed, pharma and medical devices and materials development) and draft a review on our knowledge progress over the last decade whilst initiating dialog. To boost the quality of the dialog it will create a platform for dialogues between stakeholders in a “trusted environment” inclusive of civil society. The NRGC core business is to coordinate, guide and harmonize in order to overcome the fragmentation of current knowledge, information and needs over various sectors and disciplines (workers, consumers/patients, environmental safety) and to prepare the transfer of this knowledge. To that end, the NRGC will be equipped with a self-sustainable NanoSafety Governance Portal (NSGP) consolidating state-of-the-art and progressive nanosafety governance tools including ones for dialogues and measuring risk perception. Major efforts will be towards requirements for data harmonization and data curation to be defined and laid down in guidance on obtaining harmonized and standardized quality-scored data collections promoting a big data approach for nano-toxicology. Research activities will be initiated for regulatory sound knowledge in support of harmonized (OECD) guidance for characterization and testing of nanomaterials.

The POLYRISK project aims unraveling the risks of microplastic and nanoplastic particles (MNP) that are ubiquitous in our environment and are likely to be entering the human body via inhalation and ingestion. The most bioavailable low-micron and nano-sized MNP, pose the biggest analytical challenges or today’s analytical chemists. Existing knowledge about the adverse pro-inflammatory effects of airborne particulate matter and nanoparticles, combined with pro-inflammatory evidence of MNP exposure observed in animal models and in vitro pilot tests with human immune cells, suggests that MNP may cause immunotoxicity in humans. Occupational exposure of workers to fibrous MNP can indeed lead to granulomatous lesions, causing respiratory irritation, functional abnormalities and flock worker’s lung. Currently, human health risk assessment protocols specific to MNP are not available and key data is missing. This hampers science-based decision making. On this backdrop, POLYRISK’s human risk assessment strategy will combine highly advanced sampling, sample pretreatment and analytical methods to detect MNP in complex matrices, up-to-date fit-for-purpose hazard assessment technologies and multiple real-life human exposure scenarios. We will focus on key toxic events linked to several chronic inflammatory diseases. The consortium uniquely brings together interdisciplinary experience and know-how on quality-controlled chemical analyses of MNP and additives, intestinal and respiratory toxicity models, human exposure epidemiology, immunotoxicology and real-life high-exposure studies. POLYRISK’s novel human risk assessment strategy is based on mechanistic reasoning and pragmatically accommodates the complexity of the MNP toxicant class. Building with ground-breaking science, stakeholder engagement and strong communication, POLYRISK aims to rapidly reduce current MNP risk uncertainties and support EU efforts to ensure public health is adequately protected from the potential risks of MNP pollution. POLYRISK is a part of the European cluster on Health Impacts of Micro- and Nanoplastics.

The European construction industry faces three major challenges: improve its productivity, increase the safety and wellbeing of its workforce and make a shift towards a green, resource efficient industry. To address these challenges adequately, HumanTech proposes a human-centered approach, involving breakthrough technologies such as wearables for worker safety and support, and intelligent robotic technology that can harmoniously co-exist with human workers while also contributing to the green transition of the industry. Our aim is to achieve major advances beyond the current state-of-the-art in all these technologies, that can have a disruptive effect in the way construction is conducted by a new generation of highly skilled, male and female construction workers and engineers, working in a safe and rewarding digitally enabled environment. These advances will include: Introduction of robotic devices equipped with vision and intelligence to enable them to navigate autonomously and safely in a highly unstructured environment, collaborate with humans and dynamically update a semantic digital twin of the construction site. Visual information capturing will extend to multispectral imaging enabling detection of material composition of built structures besides geometric characteristics. Intelligent unobtrusive workers protection and support equipment ranging from exoskeletons triggered by wearable body pose and strain sensors, to wearable cameras and XR glasses to provide real-time worker localisation and guidance for the efficient and accurate fulfilment of their tasks. An entirely new breed of Dynamic Semantic Digital Twins (DSDTs) of construction sites simulating in detail the current state of a construction site at geometric and semantic level, based on an extended BIM formulation encompassing all relevant structural and semantic dimensions (BIMxD). BIMxDs will act as a common reference for all human workers, engineers and autonomous machines.