On Thursday 28th January 2021, the EU H2020 project SABYDOMA organised, virtually, its 1^st Legal Workshop on Safety-by-Design, moderated by Mr Anthony Bochon, from G&S, SABYDOMA’s expert in legal practice nanotechnology-related regulations.

With expert lawyers and scientists from different regions of the world among the speakers, the workshop covered the legal aspects of the Safe-by-Design approach in the nanotechnology sector, expanding out to “By-Design” approaches relevant in other technological industries, such as chemical and pharma.

The workshop was open to scientists, industry and commercial managers, public policy stakeholders, lawyers (in-house, in a public administration or in private practice), compliance officers, patent attorneys, trade associations and NGOs representatives and all other stakeholders having interest in the safe design of (nano)technologies.

One hundred participants, from all over the world (Asia, America, Africa, Europe) and from a wide range of stakeholders (scientist, industry, lawyers, regulators, compliance officers, NGOs, etc.), joint the workshop with the expectation of increasing their knowledge in SbD (legal) aspects and practical approaches of SbD worldwide.

After a warm welcome to the workshop by the moderator Mr Anthony Bochon, from Gil Robles – San Bartolome & Partners (Brussels), SABYDOMA’s coordinator, Prof. Andrew Nelson, from the University of Leeds, gave a short presentation about the project. Prof. Mohammad Ershadul Karim, from the University of Malaya (Malaysia), presented the Asian perspective of the SbD approach and Mr Anthony Bochon, the EU one. Dr Mirella Miettinen, from the UEF Law School (University of Eastern Finland), extended that to further “By-Design“ approaches and interdisciplinarity. This session was followed by the presentation of the current literature status of SbD (by Dr Benjamin Trump (from the University of Michigan) and Mr Ignasi Gispert (from Applied Nanoparticles S.L.). In the last session, Prof. Ira Rubinstein, from the New York University School of Law, gave a talk about the technologies “By-Design” and lessons from privacy-by-design.

The workshop ended with a very interactive Round Table discussion on possible SbD legal approaches, where the six panellists (Prof. Fernand Doridot (from the Institut Catholique d’Arts et Métiers of Lille), Prof. Andrew Nelson (from the University of Leeds), Prof. Maria Dusinska (from NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research), Dr Igor Linkov (from Factor Social), Dr Benjamin Trump (from the University of Michigan), Mr Ignasi Gispert) were interviewed by the moderator Anthony Bochon.

You can find the presentations here, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), and the recordings of each session in SABYDOMA’s YouTube Channel.

Here is a list of all slides & recordings from the workshop

➜ Andrew Nelson:  Slides  |  Recording

➜ Mohammad Ershadul Karim:  Slides  |  Recording

➜ Anthony Bochon:  Slides  |  Recording

➜ Benjamin Trump & Ignasi Gispert:  Slides  |  Recording

➜ Ira Rubinstein:  Slides  |  Recording

➜ Round Table:  Slides  |  Recording

This first workshop dedicated to the emerging legal definition of SbD will be used as a starting point for an informal working group of stakeholders which will be consulted and share information during the project on legal definition of SbD.