France's national industrial and environmental risk institute, specializing in nanomaterial safety, chemical risk governance, and regulatory tool development for emerging technologies.
INERIS is France's national institute for industrial and environmental risk, specializing in the safety assessment of chemicals, nanomaterials, and industrial processes. They develop risk governance frameworks, testing methodologies, and regulatory tools that help industry and policymakers manage hazards from emerging materials and technologies. Their work spans from nanosafety regulation and toxicology modeling to carbon capture safety and air quality forecasting, consistently bridging the gap between scientific risk research and real-world regulatory implementation. They also operate and contribute to European research infrastructures for atmospheric monitoring and CO2 capture.
Coordinated NanoREG II and EC4SafeNano; participated in caLIBRAte, BIORIMA, Gov4Nano, NanoFASE, and OpenRiskNet — covering grouping, regulation, risk governance, and safer-by-design approaches.
Major roles in EU-ToxRisk, OBERON, HBM4EU, and EuroMix — focused on systems toxicology, adverse outcome pathways (AOPs), computational modelling, and integrated testing strategies for endocrine disruptors.
Participated in C4U (CO2 capture in steel industry) and ECCSELERATE (ECCSEL ERIC infrastructure for CCS/CCUS), contributing safety expertise to industrial decarbonisation.
Contributed to MACC-III, ACTRIS IMP, and PAPILA — supporting research infrastructures for atmospheric composition monitoring and air quality forecasting.
Participated in PRESLHY (liquid hydrogen safety), HELIS (lithium-sulphur batteries), and DEMOBASE (battery safety modelling), applying hazard assessment to emerging energy technologies.
Involved in CIRCULAR FLOORING (PVC waste and plasticiser treatment) and Zelcor (lignocellulosic biorefinery), assessing environmental and health risks of recycling processes.
In the early H2020 period (2014–2018), INERIS focused heavily on nanomaterial safety — coordinating flagship projects on nanosafety regulation, grouping methodologies, and safe-by-design frameworks, while also building capacity in resilience management and atmospheric monitoring. From 2019 onward, their portfolio broadened into integrated risk governance for nanomaterials, endocrine disruptor testing strategies, carbon capture safety, and circular economy hazard assessment, reflecting a shift from establishing regulatory tools to applying them across wider industrial challenges. The trend shows a clear move from nano-specific risk work toward cross-sector environmental and health risk integration.
INERIS is expanding from its nanosafety core toward industrial decarbonisation safety and chemical risk integration, making them a strong partner for projects where emerging technologies need robust hazard frameworks.
INERIS operates predominantly as a specialist partner in large consortia (31 of 36 projects as participant), bringing risk assessment and safety expertise rather than leading project design. They coordinated only twice — both in their core nanomaterial safety domain (NanoREG II, EC4SafeNano) — suggesting they lead when the topic is squarely in their mandate but prefer contributing deep expertise to others' visions. With 589 unique partners across 48 countries, they are a highly networked organization that connects broadly rather than clustering with repeat collaborators.
INERIS has collaborated with 589 unique partners across 48 countries, giving them one of the broadest networks among French research centres. Their partnerships span from Western European research institutes to Latin American atmospheric science collaborations (PAPILA), though the core network is firmly European.
INERIS occupies a rare niche at the intersection of scientific risk research and regulatory implementation — they don't just study hazards, they build the frameworks and tools that regulators and industry use to manage them. Their dual mandate covering both environmental and industrial risks means they can assess a technology's safety from lab bench to factory floor. For consortium builders, INERIS brings immediate credibility on risk and safety work packages, plus strong connections to French and EU regulatory bodies.
