The TRAAC framework for Nanomaterials Risk Assessment and Mitigation Tools

Despite significant efforts on the development of innovative tools and methods for the assessment and management of the potential risk posed by the nanomaterials to the humans and environment, they still lack regulatory compliance and acceptance, reliability and trust, user-friendliness and compatibility with the intended users’ needs. Due to which their widespread use is largely hindered.

TRAAC framework helps eradicate this issue. It quantifies the readiness of different tools and methods towards their wider regulatory acceptance and downstream use by different stakeholders.

The Need for Innovative Approaches

For the nanomaterials risk estimation and mitigation, New Approach Methodologies, or tools and methods (e.g. in-silico, in-vitro, in-chemico) are quicker and more efficient option over time consuming and resource intensive traditional experimental investigations. To help wider regulatory acceptance and stakeholders usability of such “quicker” tools and methods, TRAAC framework diagnoses barriers in this context based on five pillars of Transparency, Reliability, Accessibility, Applicability and Completeness (i.e. TRAAC). Each TRAAC pillar consists of criteria which help in evaluating the overall quality of the tools and methods for their (i) compatibility with regulatory frameworks and (ii) usefulness and usability for end-users.

Target Audience and Benefits of TRAAC

The TRAAC framework is intended to help:

regulators and other authorities by pointing out the most appropriate and relevant tools and methods (i.e. regulatory orientated) for the safe innovation of MNMs;
end-users of tools and methods by selecting the most appropriate options for their specific needs;
industries by increasing their trust and confidence around the tools and methods and thus accompanying them with the regulatory compliance process;
tools and methods developers by compiling end-users’ needs into an easy-to-use framework, which may help them to improve their tools and methods.

The TRAAC framework is available here.

Please contact Neeraj Shandilya at TNO for more details on the tool.