On September 12-13, 2018, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), NanoReg2, and GRACIOUS hosted a “Scientific Workshop:  Grouping of Nanomaterials.”  The Workshop brought together 120 nanotechnology specialists from Europe, North America, and Asia to discuss a bottleneck in nanomaterials development and testing.  The agenda and the following slides from the workshop have been posted online:

• Welcome slides.
• Session 1: Nanomaterial Grouping:  Principles, History, and Context:
  • OECD WPMN Initiatives on “Grouping and read-across for the safety assessment of manufactured nanomaterials”: Juan Riego Sintes, European Commission (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC);
  • Regulatory priorities/needs linked to Grouping (EU): Celia Tanarro, European Chemicals Agency (ECHA); and
  • Regulatory Priorities and Information Needs Linked to Grouping of Nanomaterials (U.S. perspective): Kenneth Moss, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• Session 2: Cutting Edge Grouping Frameworks:
  • The NanoReg2 Grouping Approach: Andrea Haase, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR);
  • Draft GRACIOUS framework for grouping and read-across of nanomaterials for regulatory risk assessment and safe-by-design: Agnes Oomen, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM);
  • Environmental hazard and risk of nanomaterials: grouping concepts for aquatic and terrestrial toxicity:  Dana Kühnel, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ); and
  • Adverse outcome pathways for grouping of nanomaterials: Sabina Halappanavar, Health Canada.
• Session 3: Grouping in Practice — Connecting to Test Methods and Test Strategies:
  • OECD WPMN Expert Meeting on Physico-Chemical Parameters Framework for the Risk Assessment of Nanomaterials: Kenneth Moss, EPA;
  • NanoReg2 grouping case studies — Human tox: Blanca Suarez-Merino, Swiss Center of Applied Human Toxicology (SCAHT)/TEMAS;
  • Ecotoxicity Data for the Grouping of Nanomaterials: José María Navas, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA);
  • GRACIOUS Hypothesis and IATAs: Vicki Stone, Heriot-Watt University;
  • nanoGRAVUR: Nanostructured materials — Grouping in view of worker, consumer and environmental safety and risk minimization:  Thomas Kuhlbusch, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety an Health (BAuA), and Wendel Wohlleben, BASF; and
  • NanoToxClass: Establishing NM grouping strategies according to toxicity and biological effects for supporting risk assessment:  Nils Krüger, Evonik, & Martin von Bergen, UFZ.
• Concluding remarks and close