Decision Support System for Safe & Sustainable Innovation in NICKEFFECT

To integrate the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework into advanced material development, there is a critical need for robust tools and Decision Support Systems (DSSs). These enable early-stage evaluation of safety, sustainability, and performance trade-offs.

Within the NICKEFFECT project, we have developed a prototype of such a tool, consisting of a Material and Process Information Management System (M&P IMS) coupled with a series of modular analysis components. These include machine learning algorithms for performance optimization, early-stage safety assessment modules, and a simplified life-cycle analysis (LCA) engine to evaluate environmental impacts.

The M&P IMS employs a carefully designed schema linking materials, batches, samples, equipment, tests, and chemical substances—ensuring full traceability and enabling structured search, comparison, and reuse of data. On top of this knowledge base, the DSS offers modular applications that transform raw experimental data into actionable insights: comparing performance, conducting regulatory risk assessments, and estimating environmental impacts, all within a unified web-based interface. It caters to both experts and non-specialists, enabling SSbD decision-making early in the development pipeline and minimizing costly redesigns.

In the contribution we will show how the system can be utilized to support the replacement of Platinum group metals in ferromagnetic coating materials.