In November 2019, the Horizon 2020 project Gov4Nano (Gov4Nano – Meeting the Needs of Nanotechnology) and the ERA-NET Partnership SAF€RA published a joint Gov4Nano-SAF€RA call on the topic of call, on the topic ‘Safety concerns and opportunities related to advanced materials and new technologies in energy production and storage‘. According to the SAF€RA announcement, the call made up to 1.54M€ in funding available from SAF€RA partners (pre-proposal submission was due by the end of January 2020, full proposals in March 2020, funding decision were provided during the summer, and contracts were foreseen to commence towards the end of 2020).
A Gov4Nano Fact Sheet ‘Report on execution of Regulatory Road and Research Map including joint calls – initial list’ (published 17th November 2020) now illustrates the motivation and process behind the joint effort to provide funding for nanosafety research projects of regulatory relevance:
On the 19th June 2019, AcumenIST organised the 1st Joint Gov4Nano-SAF€RA-Workshop; during the workshop, which was kindly hosted by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) (now BMK), SAF€RA members and Gov4Nano representatives decided on a number of topics that could form the basis of joint calls for funding of nanosafety-relevant research within the wider Gov4Nano Regulatory Road- and Research-Map (published 17th November 2020).
The Joint Gov4Nano-SAF€RA Calls process provide an interesting example on how the future Nano Risk Governance Council (NRGC) could interact with RFOs; it furthermore helped to build a significant network of Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) at the EU Member State level, that could be helpful in the following phases of the Gov4Nano project and the development of the NRGC.
Another round of nanosafety-relevant calls under the title of ‘Nanostructured materials in PPE and filtration devices’ is planned to be published towards the end of 2020 (please check the SAF€RA website for more information.
Follow this link to find out more about the Gov4Nano Project.
