Nanomaterials are very diverse groups of materials with greatly varying properties. Nowadays, an increasing number of them are entering the market in every day products spanning from healthcare and leisure to electronics, cosmetics and foodstuff. However, the novelty and variety in properties and forms of nanomaterials makes the elaboration of a well-founded and robust legislative framework to ensure safe development of nano-enabled products particularly challenging.
At the heart of the challenge lies the difficulty in the reliable and reproducible characterisation of nanomaterials given their extreme diversity and dynamic nature, particularly in complex conditions, such as within different biological, environmental and technological compartments.
The European Defence Agency (EDA) has recently commissioned Fundación Prodintec and MBDA FR to conduct a project on “Additive Manufacturing Feasibility Study & Technology Demonstration” (ref. 16.ESI.OP.144). due to be delivered in December 2017.
This study will assess the areas where additive manufacturing can make a greater contribution to defence capabilities and demonstrate its feasibility. It also has the objective of raising awareness in the defence community and of promoting a better understanding of the potential of these technologies, thereby stimulating their implementation in defence specific areas.
NANOfutures is involved in FutureNanoNeeds, a project funded by the European Commission under FP7. It aims at developing a novel framework to enable naming, classification, hazard and environmental impact assessment of the next generation nanomaterials prior to their widespread industrial use.
