POLICY BRIEF article
Front. Toxicol.
Sec. Regulatory Toxicology
Towards Test Guidelines and Standards for Advanced Materials: Scientific Insights and Recommendations from the MACRAMÉ Project
- AP
Anna Pohl 1,2
- DH
Daniel Haase 3
- EA
Eric A.J. Bleeker 4
- SO
Samia Ouhajji 4
- KW
Klaus-Michael Weltring 5
- MW
Martin Wiemann 6
- AK
Alberto Katsumiti 7
- CS
Christian Seitz 1
- GG
Govind Gupta 8,9
- LM
Luis Mauricio Ortiz-Galvez 10
- TB
Tina Bürki 10
- PW
Peter Wick 10
- TE
Thomas Eckart Exner 11
- BS
Blanca Suarez-Merino 12
- RC
Rayén Chantal Mentler 12
- TS
Tommaso Serchi 13
- KR
Katie Reilly 14
- IL
Iseult Lynch 14
- SF
Steffi Friedrichs 1
- EH
Elisabeth Heunisch 15
1. AcumenIST SRL, Etterbeek, Belgium
2. Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Dortmund, Germany
3. Gesellschaft für Bioanalytik Münster e. V., Münster, Germany
4. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, Bilthoven, Netherlands
5. Gesellschaft für Bioanalytik Münster e.V., Münster, Germany
6. IBE R&D Institute for Lung Health gGmbH, Münster, Germany
7. GAIKER Centro Tecnologico, Zamudio, Spain
8. Drug Discovery and Development Division, Patanjali Research Foundation, Uttarakhand, India
9. Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), St. Gallen, Switzerland
10. Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), St. Gallen, Switzerland
11. Seven Past Nine GmbH, Schopfheim, Germany
12. TEMAS Solutions GmbH, Hausen, Switzerland
13. Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
14. University of Birmingham School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences, Birmingham, United Kingdom
15. Bundesanstalt fur Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin Standort Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract
The Horizon Europe Project MACRAMÉ •developed twelve recommendations towards Test Guidelines and Standards for safety assessment of advanced materials (AdMas); •identifies needs in characterisation and identification, safety testing, transformation and release as well as information flow along the AdMas life cycle, all captured in the twelve recommendations; •highlights challenges posed by complex structures and transformations of AdMas and AdMas-enabled products for regulation and industry; •draws on research on graphene-related materials, carbon nanotubes and poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid in realistic use cases; •translates advances in characterisation, transformation and release assessment, and in New Approach Methodologies into actionable recommendations; •calls on regulators, funding bodies, researchers and industry to develop and validate fit-for-purpose test methods, standards and guidance; •aims to enable safe and sustainable deployment of AdMas for societal challenges.
Summary
Keywords
Advanced materials, life cycle, MACRAMÉ Informed Recommendations, MACRAMÉ Project, OECD test guidelines, Safety testing, Standardisation
Received
29 May 2026
Accepted
14 July 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Pohl, Haase, Bleeker, Ouhajji, Weltring, Wiemann, Katsumiti, Seitz, Gupta, Ortiz-Galvez, Bürki, Wick, Exner, Suarez-Merino, Mentler, Serchi, Reilly, Lynch, Friedrichs and Heunisch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Anna Pohl
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.