A recent EU ON opinion highlights the potential of advanced materials to support sustainability goals while acknowledging their human health and environmental risks. The European Commission’s 2024 communication emphasises the need for Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) principles to ensure safety and sustainability. However, the communication lacks concrete implementation measures and fails to align with broader EU strategies, risking regulatory gaps and oversight. While advanced materials offer promising solutions, the authors argue that governance via collaboration of all stakeholders is essential to enable adequate regulation, appropriate risk assessments, and early-stage safety and sustainability considerations to prevent potential negative impacts.

Promises and challenges of advanced materials

The European Commission (EC) published its 2024 communication on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership, highlighting their importance in achieving the European Green Deal. Advanced materials are understood as rationally designed materials with enhanced properties or structures to improve functionality. The EC announced funding and research support to boost their development and application, focusing on advanced materials for energy, mobility, construction, and electronics. These materials can help tackle global challenges like climate change, sustainable mobility, and health protection. However, their production, use, and disposal can also contribute to environmental issues such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion.

A recently published EU ON opinion from two prominent German Environment Agency (UBA) scientists stresses the need for a holistic approach to balance innovation with safety and sustainability throughout the entire material life cycle. Conflicting goals may arise; some advanced materials essential for renewable energy or new technologies might also have harmful environmental or health impacts. Early identification of these potential impacts is crucial for implementing timely, anticipatory actions to minimise risks and ensure responsible innovation.

Key elements to enable innovation of safe and sustainable advanced materials

Two key strategies are crucial for the responsible innovation of advanced materials:

Regulatory preparedness: Governments should identify and address knowledge gaps regarding safety, sustainability, and regulations. Advanced materials often display complex behaviours that make risk assessment challenging. Consequently, it is essential to update regulatory frameworks and OECD testing guidelines to ensure safety and legal clarity for industries.

Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD): Innovators should integrate safety and sustainability early in material development rather than focusing solely on functionality. To improve this situation, there is a need to promote safe and sustainable material life cycles within research and innovation. The SSbD framework, introduced by the EC in 2022, provides a five-step assessment to identify risks, find safer alternatives, and prevent costly regulatory challenges.

A combination of regulatory updates and proactive safety and sustainability considerations is necessary to ensure that advanced materials contribute to innovation while minimising risks to human health and the environment.

Safe and sustainable material innovation for industrial leadership

According to the opinion, the EC acknowledges the importance of safe and sustainable advanced materials. However, its communication lacks clear implementation measures and alignment with Green Deal initiatives. Furthermore, it does not specify how it connects to the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, which could lead to regulatory gaps. Simplifying the authorisation process for advanced materials without proper safety and sustainability checks may undermine regulatory acceptance and environmental goals. Additional measures are needed to strengthen regulatory preparedness, integrate SSbD principles, and develop standardised assessment methods for risk evaluation.

To ensure advanced materials contribute to the European Green Deal and UN United Nations  (United Nations  ) Sustainable Development Goals, tangible actions must be taken, involving experts in regulation, chemical safety, and SSbD to guide responsible innovation.

Reflections by RIVM

This opinion on advanced materials highlights both their potential benefits and inherent challenges in achieving safety and sustainability. While advanced materials can drive innovation in key areas like energy, mobility, and healthcare, it is essential to consider their safety and environmental impact carefully. The EC’s 2024 Communication recognises this, but falls short in providing concrete implementation measures. In addition, there is no clear alignment with existing sustainability strategies, such as the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

RIVM underlines the importance of a holistic and proactive approach. Regulatory preparedness is crucial for identifying risks early, addressing knowledge gaps, and updating safety standards. Meanwhile, SSbD should be integrated into material innovation to prevent long-term safety issues and environmental and regulatory challenges. We support the authors’ call for the EC to focus more on concrete solutions and actions. According to RIVM, these aspects should be further developed in collaboration with stakeholders and experts in the fields of advanced materials and SSbD.

As previously highlighted in an RIVM newsletter, for advanced materials to support global sustainability efforts, there is a need for improved risk assessments, regulatory updates, and early-stage safety and sustainable design practices. Addressing these challenges requires strong governance through collaboration between policymakers, researchers, and industries to balance innovation, safety, and sustainability. This process entails co-creation, dialogue and the development of scientific knowledge. Research programs in Europe and elsewhere should not only give attention to the development of advanced materials but also to the identification of the knowledge gaps and the necessary harmonised test methods for advanced materials.