From anti-viral coatings for protective masks and gowns to sun-creams and cosmetics- nanoparticles is making an inroad to consumer products of a market size that is expected to exceed €115 Billion by 2024.
ASINA (Anticipating Safety Issues at the Design Stage of NAno Product Development), €6 million EU Horizon 2020 collaborative project will incorporate industrial six sigma practices to ensure nano-enabled products (NEPs) will be as safe as possible taking on board the targeted function of the nanomaterial production technologies, safety, environmental sustainability, cost effectiveness and regulatory requirements in line with responsible innovation policy. The Project is led by Dr. Anna Costa of ISTEC-CNR, Faenza, Italy.
Dr. Tofail Syed, a Bernal Institute member and an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Limerick has been awarded €300,00.00 funding as a partner of this project to conduct physico-chemical characterization of nanomaterials to determine size related health impact of nanomaterials. UL Spin outs Trangsgero Ltd and Mica Nanotech Ltd are also a partner in this project.
ASINA will use the production value chains (VCs) of two representative categories of nano-enabled products (NEPs): coatings in environmental (clean) nanotechnology and nano-encapsulating systems in cosmetics, to formulate design hypothesis and make design decisions by applying a data-driven approach and methodology (the “ASINA-SMM”). Modelled on industrial six sigma practices, the ASINA-SMM can be easily adopted by manufactures to deliver NEPs designed to be as safe as possible.
On completion, this four-year project will provide a roadmap to generalise ASINA-SMM, and maximizing the positive impacts of further products, designed to improve environmental quality and human health/wellness.
Further information on the project can be found at the project website ( https://www.asina-project.eu/)