Nanotechnologies : AFNOR joins the European NanoReg2 research project

After an initial kick-off meeting last October in Paris, AFNOR and its partners in the NanoReg2 research project for the development of safer nanomaterials are meeting again on March 10 in Bilbao.

Things are getting serious for the 38 partners in the NanoReg2 European research project, led by Ineris (Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques). The consortium, which meets in Bilbao on March 10 – six months after launching its work in Paris – includes AFNOR, as the reference organization in the field of standardization.

Nanotechnologies, critical raw materials, the factory of the future… Emerging technologies raise the question of standards, not in the regulatory sense, but in the sense of voluntary standards that stakeholders are invited to draw up, together, to speak a common language. This is the case in the field of nanotechnologies, where AFNOR has been invited to join a European consortium. ” The European Commission, which has allocated 10.6 million euros to the NanoReg2 project as part of its Horizon 2020 framework program, appreciates the fact that standardization bodies are involved: they provide a guarantee that new technologies will be able to penetrate the market more easily, and that best practices will be established “, says Emilie Langlois-Bertrand, secretary of the “Nanotechnologies” standardization committee and head of the standardization project at AFNOR.

“SAFER BY DESIGN

When it comes to nanotechnologies, voluntary standardization is required above all to provide a framework for measurement protocols and to deal with the hygiene, health and safety aspects of nanomaterials developed, placed on the market, and eventually released into the environment. The major challenge is to gain a better understanding of their impact on the natural environment and human health. ” If there is toxicity, in water for example, only standardized measurement protocols will enable us to compare results obtained by different laboratories, anywhere in the world,” stresses Emilie Langlois-Bertrand. The angle of the NanoReg2 project is “Safer By Design”, i.e. the development of nanomaterials that are safer right from the design stage. In this sense, “Safer By Design” is based on three principles: safer products, safer production and safer use.

With this in mind, ” our job will be to present a state of the art of existing standards useful for the project, to imagine new subjects specific to standardization, and to propose ideas for revising existing voluntary standards “, concludes Emilie Langlois-Bertrand.

> Find out more about the AFNOR nanotechnology standardization committee…

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