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Project title

Greening of Regulated Analytical chemistry Methods using the existing regulated State Laboratory

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin)

Lead Applicant

Patrice Behan

Project Abstract

The GRAMS project addresses the urgent need to implement green and sustainable laboratory practices for regulatory testing laboratories aligned with the European Union's Green Deal and Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the US EPA’s Greener Products initiative. Scientific laboratories are resource-intensive spaces which use up to 10 times more energy and four times more water than office spaces. In addition, laboratories produce 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, meaning that this mass of non-degradable plastics end up in our landfills. GRAMS is fundamentally driven by the need to align regulatory analytical methods with the principles of Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) which emphasizes the use of safer solvents, greener procurement, finite resources, reduction of waste and water usage, energy-efficient instrumentation, and miniaturized analytical techniques. It builds on the 12 principles of green chemistry adapted specifically for analytical methods and White Analytical Chemistry (WAC) which is an extension, and complement to GAC, as it assumes that the basis for designing and developing new methods should be a balance between greenness and attributes influencing the functionality of the method. It strives for a compromise that avoids an unconditional increase in greenness at the expense of method usefulness in a regulatory setting. GRAMS team members, through active participation in EURACHEM, have led the delivery of the 2025 EURACHEM Guide to method validation- The fitness for purpose of analytical methods. A key innovation of the GRAMS project is utilising the State Laboratory as a test-bed of an EU regulatory chemistry laboratory and the evaluation of sustainability assessment tools to quantitatively compare traditional versus alternative greener methods which is crucial to compare traditional and greener methods and identify opportunities to improve resource efficiency, reduce water and energy usage, reduce waste and identify safer and greener feedstocks to protect finite resources. An essential assumption is that greener methods can be validated to meet the international accreditation standard ISO 17025. As there is limited shared knowledge about validated case studies where greener methods have successfully replaced conventional ones in a regulatory setting, GRAMS will fill this gap for analytical method validation in public-sector laboratories. Regulatory analytical chemists’ training traditionally focuses on accuracy, precision, and compliance with little emphasis on green or sustainable methods. Professional training on greening methods is still limited or not prioritized in regulatory settings. GRAMS will address this gap and exploit the range of sustainability assessment tools, particularly those reflecting a holistic approach to assess overall analytical method performance. Crucially, GRAMS will advance the state-of-the-art by applying these metrics systematically during method development or validation. GRAMS will include feasibility and practicality in decision-making and by doing so, the State Laboratory will represent an exemplar for other national and international laboratories to follow and will empower policy makers to make informed decisions on an agreed approach to replace regulatory test methods with greener methods. This will help accelerate the slow rate of GAC adoption and embedding in regulated laboratory settings thus ensuring long-term sustainable and environmental benefits for Ireland and European Regulatory Laboratories.

Grant Approved

€328,783.36

Research Hub

Delivering a Healthy Environment

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

31/03/2026

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2028