Accelerate the uptake of life-cycle assessment (LCA) for Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals and materials and resulting products (RIA)

• Scientific life-cycle evidence supporting implementation of EU sustainability and circularity regulations and strategies (ESPR, EU Ecolabel, Green Claims Directive, One-Substance-One-Assessment, Batteries Regulation, Critical Raw Materials Act, Net Zero Industry Act);

• Significant reduction in company-level LCA application costs, notably for SMEs;

• Efficient, simplified LCA application at early design stages to inform decision-making by industry and policymakers via user-friendly, cost-effective tools, methods and data;

• Advanced, reliable and predictive life-cycle models and impact assessment methods enabling satisfactory measurement of planetary boundaries.

• Identify and address gaps in LCA tools, methods and data to improve environmental sustainability and efficiency of chemicals, materials and products, considering raw-material criticality;

• Build on Environmental Footprint methods, in particular the EC PEF framework;

• Cover all life-cycle stages from extraction to disposal, enabling data-driven decisions within planetary boundaries;

• Ensure compliance with the Safe and Sustainable by Design framework;

• Develop and validate LCA datasets for at least three emerging alternative substances to substances of concern (as per ESPR) with high socio-economic value;

• Use advanced digital technologies (AI/ML, modelling) to fill data gaps and estimate LCA uncertainty;

• Provide FAIR data to European sustainability platforms (e.g. EPLCA) and guarantee tool findability;

• Offer guidance for circularity scenario modelling aligned with EC PEF and SSbD;

• Ensure tools and methods are cost-effective, user-friendly and industry-ready (especially for SMEs);

• Provide integration guidelines for new LCA approaches with existing assessment methods (notably EC PEF);

• Plan stakeholder engagement, harmonisation workshops and SME outreach;

• Deliver training and knowledge transfer to embed life-cycle thinking in the R&I ecosystem;

• Contribute to yearly policy briefs and technical discussions under ESPR and the EF Technical Advisory Board;

• Integrate SSH insights on socio-economic factors (child labour, employment conditions etc.) into LCA models;

• Evaluate economic and social sustainability dimensions at product level based on a functional unit;

• Indicate contributions to relevant chapters of the Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials;

• Structure international collaboration and build synergies with PARC, SSbD toolbox, IRISS, ORIENTING and other European, national and regional initiatives;

• Allocate dedicated resources for these activities and leverage European research infrastructures;

• Encourage alignment with relevant Horizon Europe missions.