NanoSafety Platform
The Nanosafety platform is housed in its own 5,000 sq. m facility, which includes 2,000 sq. m of lab space. It is staffed by 150 research scientists, engineers, technicians, medical doctors, biologists, pharmacists, and other professionals representing a diverse range of fields. To date, the platform has tested 350 workstations and is currently engaged in fifteen research projects at the French and EU levels.
A CLEAR MANDATE
The Nanosafety platform was set up with a clear mandate to support responsible, cost-competitive development of nanomaterials by manufacturing companies and facilitate the availability of innovative technologies to the industrial sector and, more broadly, society.
The platform leverages the know-how of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) as well as a broad slate of partners from academia and scientific research through local, national, and European partnerships. The platform currently works with INERIS, INRS, LNE, CNRS, Institut Pasteur Lille, and the European NanoSafety Cluster.
Finally, the platform has access to world-leading measurement and characterization instruments and equipment through the NanoID Equipex lab (founded under a French government program), the CEA Tech Nanocharacterization platform, and LBM (a world-class medical biology laboratory).
A SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES UNIQUE IN EUROPE
The platform’s R&D programs cover the entire nanomaterials lifecycle, from fabrication, integration, and use through to environmental and end-of-lifecycle considerations, addressing these topics through five key research areas:
- Assessing the effectiveness of diffusion-filtration media
- Characterizing, detecting, and measuring nanomaterials and substances
- Developing “Safer by Design” nanomaterials integration processes
- Performing toxicological and eco-toxicological assessments
- Carrying out risk-prevention campaigns
- Investigating environmental-impact and end-of-lifecycle issues
From an operational standpoint, the platform offers a wide range of services to meet the needs of industrial companies around the globe:
- Nano-risk-prevention audits and consulting
- Nanosubstance characterization
- Workstation assessments
- Assessment of nanoproduct lifecycles (accelerated aging and release testing)
- Toxicology studies
- Standard and custom certificate programs to train nano-workers and risk-prevention staff
NANOSAFE CONFERENCE: WHERE THE LEADING INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS MEET
Members of the Nanosafety platform have joined forces to drive advances in nanomaterials risk prevention. To further this objective, in 2008 the platform initiated the Nanosafe Conference. This scientific conference for nanosafety specialists is held every two years on the MINATEC campus in Grenoble. In 2016, some 350 people from 29 countries attended, and the findings of nearly 170 scientific research projects covering characterization, detection, toxicology, prevention, and societal acceptance (in conjunction with sociologists, philosophers, and representatives of NGOs) were presented. Two new sessions had been organized during Nanosafe 2016: Urban Particle Mitigation and Nanomedicine.