21 Apr 2026
SAM releases evidence review report and scientific opinion on advanced materials
On 21 April 2026, the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) released the Evidence Review Report and Scientific Opinion on Advanced Materials.
Advanced materials are crucial for Europe’s autonomy, competitiveness, and resilience. However, even though Europe has a strong foundation in science and established regulatory practices, there are structural challenges that hinder the transition from materials discovery to their safe, sustainable, and competitive use. In this context, following a request from Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, SAM has published this Scientific Opinion, which emphasises that policies for advanced materials should focus on EU values like autonomy, safety, sustainability, and prosperity.
The key recommendations are:
- ensure that policies for advanced materials prioritise EU values related to autonomy, safety, sustainability, and prosperity;
- support the creation of data spaces for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data, digitalisation, AI and computational methods for accelerating safe-and-sustainable advanced materials research and commercialisation;
- design standards for advanced materials to support safety and sustainability at every level of technology development and facilitate market access;
- strengthen ecosystems that effectively develop, coordinate and support initiatives to accelerate R&D uptake by the market;
- invest to expand EU strengths in research and innovation on advanced materials.
The Commission states that together, these recommendations will contribute to shaping the forthcoming Advanced Materials Act, the EU initiative designed to strengthen Europe’s industrial leadership, strategic autonomy, and competitiveness in advanced materials.
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