Report from the recent Swetox Nano-safety meeting
held on the 28th of October in Södertälje
On a bright October day the Swetox hub in Södertälje hosted the first Swetox Nano-safety
meeting, bringing together researchers from many of its contributing universities,
representatives from authorities and other interest groups. The aim was to discuss the
potential role for Swetox in future national developments in nano-safety research, education
and science to policy support.
Externa_Deltagare.pd
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The agenda was designed to provide an overview of contemporary activities in nano-safety in
Sweden in order to provide the basis for discussions on how Swetox, both the hub facilities
and capabilities, and the larger structural unity, can contribute to the following areas of
interest:
 Ongoing nanosafety research projects
 Upcoming grant applications (national and international)
 Nano-safety education
 Support to governmental bodies
 Support to innovation in the private sector
Workshop
Nanosafety 2014-10-28 programme.pdf
Following introductory lectures by Ian Cotgreave and Bengt Fadeel, the wider perspective of
nano-safety policy and legislation within the EU were presented by Eva Hellsten and Annika
Nilsson, who both contributed centrally to the recently published government report on nanosafety.
Rune Karlsson then gave an overview of some recent major European research programs in
nano-safety.
Following these foundation-laying contributions, the workshop continued with an extensive
overview of Swedish research efforts in nano-safety provided by the various attendees.
In the final session, the delegates were self-allocated into 5 groups to discuss Swetox potential
input within the five areas listed above.
Swetox and existing nano-safety research
Several key themes emerged and were discussed:
 Better coordination of utilization of core and expert facilities within the Swetox
universities.
 Establishment of core facilities in Södertälje, based on an appropriate gap analysis.
 Swetox could provide a foundation for exchange of students and technology.
 The issue of Swetox as a single unit in applications was raised.
 Networking to provide collaborative components in existing research programs.
Swetox in future nano-safety research and grant applications
The contributions could be divided into 3 steps:
 An initial step in communication, co-ordination and networking, already initiated by
Swetox university visits and the current meeting.
 A second step involving mapping of capabilities in general:
o Creation of a nano-safety “forum” as quickly as possible.
o Integrate both intellectual and practical capabilities in a “map” that could be
published on the Swetox website.
 A third step involves increased lobby activity in future research funding calls.
o This could involve governmental organizations such as Vinnova, VR and
Formas.
o This could also include activity towards private foundations and other funding
organizations beside governmental.
o Internationally, this could act via coordination of ideas within specific Horizon
2020 calls in 2015.
o Activity in ERA-NET can also be pursued.
Swetox in development of Nano-safety teaching
The discussions focused on understanding existing teaching being performed in those
Swedish Universities represented at the meeting:
 KI: 1 week graduate course in nano-safety. Teaching in Nano-medicine touches the
subject.
 LU: Limited teaching in nano-engineering course, some teaching in an MSc program
and limited teaching in a Particles and Health course. Summer school activities exist.
 SLU: Some very limited teaching.
 LIU: No nano-safety teaching.
 KTH: No specific teaching in nano-safety in the Nano-processing and Nanotechnology MSc courses.
 UU: No specific teaching activities.
 Umeå: No specific teaching activities.
There is clearly a need to better utilize national efforts in nano-safety education:
 Swetox education coordinators could work to optimize existing educational programs
in nano-safety
 The Swetox education and science networks could be directed towards the
development of new education programs to meet emerging requirements in all areas
of societal activity
These are all possibilities which directly address some of the findings in the national report on
nano-safety.
Swetox in support to authorities and other governmental bodies in matters of nanosafety
Several concrete example of support by Swetox in science to policy activities were discussed:
 A role for coordination and formalization of Swedish academic support to KEMI in its
work with OECD and EU legislation development.
 Assistance in the validation of emerging test models within the OECD and EU
guideline developments.
 Assistance with remitted report due-diligence and report de novo construction, at both
the national and international levels.
 Coordination of contact between different stakeholder authorities via a common
scientific foundation.
 Contribution to agenda–setting in EU research framework programs regarding nanosafety.
Much of this work could be begun by formation of science to policy reference group within
populated by Swetox-related scientists, regulators and other interested parties.
Swetox in support to “nano-safe” developments in the private sector.
A variety of unique features in the structure and function of Swetox were discussed, which
can be utilized to support nano-safety activities in the private sector:
 Safety support from the Swetox hub to SMEs on both aspects of human safety and
aspects of environmental sustainability:
o As a “first point of contact” into the Swetox network
o In the development of safety testing strategies for safe development
o As a “ball-plank” for development of risk assessment strategies
o As a partner in directed safety testing.
 Coordination of knowledge on safety tests, their outcome and applicability in
regulatory risk assessment.
Apart from the various suggestions to actions detailed in each section above, a number of high
level conclusions and actions were formulated coram populo!
 A gap analysis of nano-safety specific tests and technologies at the national level.
 Development of a common national mailing list of nano-safety “actors”.
 An invitation to all registered delegates at the meeting to attend the Swetox workshop
in December.
 Establishment of a national nano-safety network within the overall Swetox.
science/education network under development.
 Appropriate delegation of duties for actions.
 Visualize the Swedish nano-safety research network on the Swetox home page as a
node of the overall capability map in the Swedish toxicological sciences.
The meeting was then concluded and we look forward to a number of actions being performed
and a follow-up meeting during 2015.
Ian Cotgreave
On behalf of all delegates