ExpectedOutcome:
Development of organic and hybrid coatings, safe- and sustainable-by-design production strategies with enhanced functionality. This includes organic and hybrid coatings and additives to substitute PFAS type coatings. Due to significant technical and scientific challenges in several areas it has been difficult to find safer alternatives with the absence of hazardous additives. In the past, this has led to substance substitution with compounds that did not avoid the problem, but minimized it. Instead, a better approach is to cover the whole lifecycle of products and include avoidance of hazardous substances and the programming-in of sustainability along the product life cycle.
Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
Integration into standardisation process and development of a roadmap to achieve full standardisation (of e.g. methods, protocols).
Relevant indicators and metrics, with baseline values, should be clearly stated in the proposal.
Scope:The largest share of the organic coatings market belongs to a family containing Polyfluorinated Alkyl substances (PFAS), used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products. Research will therefore target development of innovative PFAS-free materials with inherently surface active functions to be used for multi-industrial sector applications. (e.g. novel bio-based materials). The proposals should focus on integration of sustainable-by-design aspects including safety (toxicity), circularity and functionality of advanced coating materials and techniques (e.g. nanostructured self-healing or omniphobicity), throughout their lifecycle. Projects should include one or more of the following aspects:
The proposals, activities and approaches should cover both - specific considerations for the organic and hybrid coatings under study, as well as developing overarching best practices that spans broader sectors of safe- and sustainable-by-design materials. Proposals should involve all the actors in the value chain.
Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.
Leveraging the extensive experience from relevant initiatives and aligning with other EU-funded projects targeting safe- and sustainable- by-design materials, in particular under CSA topic HORIZON-CL4-2021-RESILIENCE-01-08, is essential.
This topic is open for international cooperation where the EU has reciprocal benefit, while excluding industrial competitors from countries where the safeguarding of IPRs cannot be guaranteed.
Specific Topic Conditions:Activities are expected to start at TRL 3 and achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Digital Agenda
International Cooperation
Artificial Intelligence