The European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) announced on December 4, 2024, the availability of the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) Second interim evaluation of the European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON). Prepared by WSP acting as a third-party evaluator, the interim evaluation assesses EUON against six criteria: effectiveness; efficiency (including economy and proportionality); relevance; coherence; EU-added value; and utility. WSP’s recommendations include:

• Improve the publicity and marketing strategy of EUON so that it reaches a wider audience, including consumers/the general public;
• Include more information on the markets and uses of nanomaterials, e.g., information on products that may contain nanomaterials, emerging markets, and applications. This could benefit both consumers and industry;
• Review the extent to which EUON is collaborating with other initiatives and strengthen them if needed. The interim evaluation states that this could include collaboration with national initiatives, the NanoSafety Cluster, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Veillenanos and other industry associations;
• Improved coherence may be needed between EUON and emerging EU regulations, e.g., reviewing whether hazard data on the EUON database and used in EUON studies are compliant with regulatory requirements or whether there are gaps in this aspect; and
• Take care when incorporating EUON into the common data platform so that key functionalities of EUON are not lost and so that information on nanomaterials can be easily filtered from information on other chemicals.