Accelerating the discovery and development of chemicals and innovative advanced materials through digitalisation and artificial intelligence (IA) (Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU partnership)

Expected Outcome

• Accelerating the discovery and development process for innovative advanced materials and chemicals through digital tools developed in Europe;
• Innovation workflows which include design of experiment and/or design of simulation
• Supporting the operationalisation of the SSbD framework;
• Making a step change in the risk assessment of chemicals and advanced materials in Europe.

Scope

Proposals should accelerate the pathway to market of new substances (chemicals or advanced materials) with superior or novel functionalities. This can be achieved with novel tools or proofs of concept using digital methods to accelerate development of new materials and demonstration of their properties. Where possible this should explore collaboration with other initiatives such as the Materials Commons for Europe or DIGIPASS, contributing data, modelling, digital tools applicable to the design, development, production, manufacturing, use and end of life phases, which connect to repeatable workflows. These workflows and tools may include the use of artificial intelligence as well as self-driving labs and their interconnection and design of experiment/design of simulation methods. They should also drive innovation in risk assessment, new test methods and support and facilitate the operationalisation and use of the SSbD framework[1]. Projects should include demonstrators which help to validate the materials development in realistic conditions.

By doing so, new innovative advanced materials (IAMs) with superior or novel functionalities and alternatives to substances of concern should be developed more rapidly in Europe. In addition, digital feedback loops ranging from requirements and information from production processes and scale-up, to manufacturing and integration into products, should be developed to accelerate market uptake. Innovative digital tools to speed up risk assessment and thereby market access of chemicals and advanced materials may also be addressed.

Interoperable workflows based on shared standards and dedicated ontologies, in particular through collaboration with the Materials Commons for Europe, should help to reduce the cost of the digital transition for industry with respect to circularity and safe and sustainable by design, e.g. by reducing the risk for adopters and vendors, and through modular tools that can be extended to new application domains without a major redesign. Tools should foster workflows in that ensure high-quality, well-structured and documented primary FAIR data and FAIR digital tools and workflows, enabling the re-use and/or streamlining of large data sets, facilitating academic and industrial collaborations and integrating AI and other digital technologies. Synergies with the SSbD toolboxes can also be foreseen including the adaptation and validation[2] of the test methods for advanced materials. Proposals could also facilitate the generation of relevant data and where relevant sharing of data with the Common Data Platform for Chemicals. Where relevant, proposals should actively contribute to and cooperate with the EU Innovation and Substitution Hub(s). Proposals should allocate the necessary resources to the proposed activities.

Proposals should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), whose contribution could consist of added value to the operationalisation of the SSbD framework.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU (IAM4EU).

Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

[1] See documents defining the SSbD framework on: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en

[2] In this context, validation refers to the requirement that test methods included in any SSbD toolbox must be sufficiently reliable and robust for innovators to use them.