CONTROLNANO TECHNOLOGIES SL

Their core work

ControlNano Technologies is a Spanish nano-safety SME that builds practical tools for monitoring and managing nanomaterial risks in industrial environments. Their core product line centers on portable, real-time exposure assessment devices that allow companies working with engineered nanomaterials to measure worker and environmental exposure on-site — replacing expensive lab analysis with continuous field measurement. Beyond hardware, they have expanded into the computational side of nanosafety, contributing to safe-by-design frameworks and nano-informatics infrastructure that lets research teams model hazard profiles before materials reach production. In short, they sit at the intersection of nanotechnology risk assessment and industrial health and safety technology.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2018–2019), ControlNano focused entirely on physical monitoring — building a portable device that could measure nanomaterial exposure in the field, a hardware and sensor challenge with a clear commercial product goal. By 2020 they had shifted toward the data and computation layer of nanosafety: their keywords in SbD4Nano (safe-by-design, nano-informatics, data-sharing) reflect a move from detecting hazards to preventing them through design-time modelling and standardised data infrastructure. The trajectory is from tool-maker to ecosystem contributor — from a company selling a device to one that also shapes the frameworks and data standards the broader nanosafety field runs on.

ControlNano is moving up the value chain from physical monitoring hardware toward computational nanosafety frameworks and data infrastructure — making them an increasingly relevant partner for any consortium building digital tools for responsible nanomaterial development.

How they like to work

ControlNano has demonstrated both leadership and partner roles, which is unusual for a two-project SME — they coordinated their own SME Instrument feasibility study (NANOWATCHER) and then joined a large RIA consortium (SbD4Nano) as a specialist. Their 23 unique consortium partners across 11 countries, almost certainly accumulated through SbD4Nano, suggests they enter well-networked, multi-actor projects rather than bilateral arrangements. As a small SME, they most likely contribute specific domain expertise — exposure data, field validation, or industrial use-case grounding — rather than administrative or management capacity in larger consortia.

Despite only two projects, ControlNano has reached 23 distinct consortium partners across 11 countries, reflecting the broad pan-European character of SbD4Nano. Their network skews toward the nanosafety research community — universities, research institutes, and regulatory bodies — rather than industrial end-users.

What sets them apart

ControlNano occupies an uncommon niche as an SME that combines hands-on exposure monitoring technology with participation in the academic infrastructure shaping how nanosafety is computed and governed — most companies do one or the other. Being based in Paterna (Valencia), a hub for materials and chemistry industry in Spain, gives them proximity to industrial end-users that purely academic nanosafety groups lack. For a consortium building a project that needs real-world industrial validation of nanosafety tools, ControlNano can bridge the lab and the factory floor.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NANOWATCHER
  Coordinated as SME Instrument Phase 1, this project represents ControlNano's core commercial proposition — a portable nanomaterial exposure monitor — and shows they have demonstrated enough business case to secure competitive EU validation funding.
• SbD4Nano
  A 2020–2024 RIA project building EU-wide computing infrastructure for safe-by-design nanomaterials; ControlNano's participation in this large consortium signals their acceptance by the broader nanosafety research community as a credible industrial partner.