European Materials Characterisation Council

Introduction to the EMCC Working Groups

C. Charitidis

Industrial Technologies 2016, Amsterdam, 24th June 2016

WG 1. Instrumentation and Metrology (Tofail Syed, Bojan Boskovic)

WG 2. Reference Materials and Measurements for Standardisation

(Marco Sebastiani, Caterina Minelli)

WG 3. Characterisation Data and Information Management (Chris Eberl, Gerhard

Goldbeck)

WG 4. Regulation, toxicology and safety (Hans Marvin, Steve Hankin)

WG 5. SMEs & Industrial Needs (Alan Taylor, Kiran Nagavalli)

WG 6. Policy (Costas Charitidis, Gerhard Goldbeck, Bojan Boskovic)

WG 7. Networking Activities (Ehrenfried Zschech, Costas Charitidis)

WG 8. Dissemination (Elias Koumoulos, Bojan Boskovic)

WG9. International Cooperation (Tofail Syed)

Working Groups

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• The scope of this working group is to develop and establish principles of measurement and their realization, measurement processes, procedures, methods and instruments in areas of metrology.

• Interaction with Sensors Cluster.

• Survey current metrological tools and theories available in the grand challenge areas and identify limitations.

WG1: Instrumentation and Metrology

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• Support widely agreed characterisation protocols.

• Establish links with standardisation/metrological bodies

• Collaborate with JRC on reference materials.

• Draft proposal with identification of characterisation methods that require:

• Standard vocabulary

• Metadata description

• Connection between metadata and performance descriptors

WG2: Reference Materials and Measurements for Standardisation

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• Development of novel standards for:

• Description of materials

• Description of characterisation techniques

• Description and architecture of MetaData associated to materials characterisation

• Sub-topics

• Search for a standard vocabulary on materials characterisation

• Definition of a standard architecture for MetaData associated to materials characterisation

• Connection between characterisation metadata and performance descriptors

• Interaction with standardisation bodies and funding agencies

• Promoting connection between large characterisation facilities and industry (including SME)

WG 2

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• Actions in lines with 3 Os: Open Science, Open Innovation, Open to the World.

• Support characterisation information management by elaborating metadata standards.

• Smart use of data: move from data collection to accessible, usable and understandable data/ quality of data

• Data repositories and comprehensive data capture/storage, addressing access to existing data.

• Support the need for an information system for materials laboratories, equipment and its availability

• “Databases for simulation” and “data for model validation” with strong interaction with the EMMC and future Materials Modelling CSA.

WG3: Characterisation Data, Information Management

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• Materials description needs to be implemented – crossing time, size scales through the transient states of materials

• Data structure and management needs to be FAIR (Chuck Ward, MGI): Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reliable!

WG 3

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A central component of nanosafety over the last 5-10 years has been the issue of nanoparticle dose-metrics and characterisation of nanomaterials

Common ground for a direct link between EMCC and NanoSafety Cluster.

WG4: Regulation, toxicology, safety

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• NSC link could be used to begin to extract and consolidate all the NMs tested in the different media compositions and to try to draw out some commonalities and some areas of divergence that could then be the basis for some joint activities to understand the source of this divergence.

• EMCC could build on Round robin and validation activities undertaken within NSC projects, ensuring hand-over of experience, information, lessons learned and to prevent the same mistakes being made over and over again.

EMCC and NSC

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• Establish a network of industrial stakeholders

• By sector

• Vertical segmentation – supply chain/pilot/evaluation

• KTNs

• H2020 Clusters

• CEN/ISO standards committees

• Regulators

• Chambers of commerce

• Investment community

WG5: SMEs & Industrial Needs

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• Support entrepreneurship: implementing high risk and high potential new ideas

• Establishment of key route maps

• Identification of drivers (trilema)

• Identification of key discovery to deployment challenges

• Translation of characterisation data into multi-variate performance descriptors

• LCCA best practice

• Directory of materials, capabilities, formulators/integrators

• Improve access to large characterisation facilities

• List of facilities and capabilities by category

WG5: SMEs & Industrial Needs

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• To support EC policy development, underpinning the relevant EC priorities, with a stakeholder driven roadmap for characterisation techniques for engineering and upscaling of nanomaterials and advanced materials in Europe.

• This activity is to support the strengthening of Europe’s industrial capacity and competitiveness and thus contributes to the main objectives of the LEIT-NMBP programme.

WG6: Policy

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• Act as a hub for information exchange between stakeholder groups active in the characterisation field, in particular instrument manufacturers, users, scientists, standardisation bodies and national metrology/standards labs (e.g. NPL, CEN/CENELEC, ISO committees).

WG7: Networking

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• The EMCC also seeks close interactions with other Clusters/Councils, in particular the European Materials Modelling Council (EMMC), EPPN, and the Engineering &Upscaling Cluster, the EuMaT – European Technology Platform for Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the Nanofutures initiative. There is a strong link to the Alliance for Materials (A4M) as well as to the large European Materials Research Society (EMRS) and the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS).

WG7: Networking

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• Develop distinct platforms of communication in order to facilitate the information flow between all the Working Groups, Project Partners of all EMCC Projects, as well as the wider community of characterisation interest groups and stakeholders, along the lines of the "Open Science", "Open Innovation" and "Open to the World" political priorities of the EC.

WG8: Dissemination

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• Actively link with ongoing, forthcoming and potential international collaborative projects, programmes and activity in the field of materials’ characterisation.

• Involve scientists and engineers from both academia and industry as well as representatives from national, regional, supra and international funding agencies and policy makers interested or involved in activities relevant to the Charter of EMCC.

• Work towards transforming EMCC as an internationally recognised, multi-stakeholder network.

• Inform, challenge and influence international practices, policies, cooperation and institutional partnerships relevant to materials characterisation.

• Act as an incubator for new ideas, stimulate discussions and debates and disseminate apt, concise, critical analysis to broker knowledge at the interface between research, policy and practice.

WG9: International Cooperation

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• Frequently, standard characterisation methods do not properly capture the full potential of new materials (and

their new products), which complicates comparison with current materials/products and evaluation of the benefits of the

new materials/products.

• The performance of the product in real life conditions may not be well understood due to inadequate

capacity/capability for functional (real) characterisation and testing.

• The more widely available methods are off-line, which means limited insight into the process.

• The quality and homogeneity of the product may be poorly controlled due to a lack of process control and in-line

characterisation.

• As a technology is moved forward towards a product, choices need to be made about characterisation techniques for

process and product. However, from the point of view of an R&D project it is often unclear which techniques might be

most suitable for later process monitoring in real production. Hence there is a risk that the chosen method or

technique might not be the best.

• Validation of measurement procedures

• New standard reference materials

• Metrological traceability (ensures measurement results made at different times and different locations)

• Methods for the determination of particle and/or feature size to be coupled with standardized measurement

techniques

• Support to legislation (guidelines for proper standardization)

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EMCC Challenges

Limitations and challenges in nanowaste detection, characterisation and monitoring

Naturally-occurring and engineered nanomaterials (“NNMs” and “ENMs”)

• Is there any detailed information on the target analyte or ENM available at the point-of-manufacturing (fingerprints)?

• Is there any information available, on how ENMs will alter or transform during waste treatment processes? Are ENMs colloidally stable or not, if their environment will be changed (e.g. regarding pH, ionic strength and content of natural organic matter)? If not, are stabilising agents or surfactants additionally needed during nanowaste analysis?

• How can ENMs ultimately be distinguished or fractionated from NNMs? Which sample preparation and analytical techniques are applicable, reproducible and reliable?

Demanding and crucial role for characterisation, as indispensable tool for life: the case of nuclears

• In-situ characterisation of facilities/waste etc. to support waste management hierarchy and sorting & segregation;

• In-situ characterisation of wastes in remote and inaccessible facilities;

• Non-destructive condition monitoring of waste forms in store or disposal facility;

• Use of scaling factors, extending to non-radiological characterisation and improved handling of associated uncertainty and variation; and

• Regulatory (environmental, safety, security & transport) compliance demonstration;

• Ensuring worker safety, including the evaluation and optimisation of worker radiation doses; and

• Maintaining public confidence.

EMCC Challenges

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Thank you for your attention!

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