BNN and Members Active at SETAC European Congress

From 11-15 May 2025, BNN and several BioNanoNet Association members were active at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe 35th Annual Meeting at the Austria Center in Vienna.

Under the overarching theme “Innovation for Tomorrow: Progress in Safe and Sustainable Concepts”, the conference emphasized the need for integration of cutting-edge innovations with safety and sustainability considerations, through implementation and expansion of the Safe and Sustainable by Design thinking, as well as it application beyond the development of new molecules and products (e.g., also to cities, land use and landscapes). The conference attracted roughly 3000 people to the capital of Austria, including several BioNanoNet members, such as BOKU, Bio-Nano Interactions Lab at PLUS, BRIMATECH, OCSiAl Europe, PyroScience, TEMAS Solutions, University of Graz, and Wood K plus. It was great to catch up in person during the many coffee breaks and lunches.

On Sunday, the pre-conference kicked off with a training course on “Safety and Sustainability Assessment in the Context of EU SSbD Framework”, co-organized by Ivana Burzic of Wood K plus with BNN’s Matiss Reinfelds.

During the main conference on Monday, we heard a poster pitch from Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind: “Decision Support in Safe and Sustainable by Design: A Case Study in the Energy Storage Sector”, presenting an SSbD matrix that enabled a comprehensive comparison of electrolyte materials by integrating safety, sustainability, and social indicators funded by the FFG project SuESS, with partners Uni Graz, TU Graz, BOKU, Biobide and BNN.

On Tuesday there were several sessions on SSbD, including a poster pitch from member Stefanie Prenner (BRIMATECH), “Bringing Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design to the public – exploring stakeholders’ concerns and needs towards nanotechnologies” presenting nano-themed stakeholder engagement activities carried out by IZES and BNN within the H2020 project DIAGONAL.  Veronique Adam of TEMAS Solutions GmbH gave an oral presentation on “Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design Advanced Materials: Application of the HARMLESS Approach to Imogolites for Agricultural Application”.

We also heard a talk by Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind again on PHASE5 project results: “Stakeholder Engagement for Advancing Socio-economic Assessment in Safe and Sustainable by Design” (with contributions from BNN, RCPE and UniGraz), as well as a talk by Vrishali Subramanian “Combining Policy and Industry Perspectives for building a Safe and Sustainable by Design Scoping Approach” presenting activities from the PARC project. Matiss Reinfelds presented a poster “Redesigning for the Future: Applying Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Principles in High-Impact Chemical Industries” with results from our project PLANETS (including member PLUS).

On Wednesday the focus turned to communication in the session “Communication for Tomorrow: From Experimental Design Towards Societal Impact” with an oral presentation from BNN’s Caitlin Ahern, assessing social media activities to get “beyond the bubble” in PLANETS, SSbD4CheM, DIAGONAL and HARMLESS.

Throughout the week there were many other presentations and posters from projects such as HARMLESS, SSbD4CheM and IRISS.

It is a privilege to provide services ranging from regulatory support to SSbD to science communication to this community, committed to a future of safe and sustainable innovations!

Watch the video for some impressions of the event!