Cefic, the European chemical industry council, has launched its new AMBIT chemical safety prediction tool, an open source software programme for companies to enable them to enhance their chemical safety compliance efforts.
The Cefic-supported ‘Long Range Research Initiative’ (LRI) responsible for developing the software considers it a major benefit that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), responsible for controlling chemical safety in Europe, opened its non-confidential REACH data as part of this collaboration, demonstrating the strong record of industry-government partnership towards greater safety compliance. LRI itself is part of Cefic’s voluntary initiatives to improve the regulatory framework of the chemical industry in Europe to identify and fill information gaps on the potential chemical hazards and improve risk assessment.
Says Pierre Barthelemy, Cefic Executive Director, Research and Innovation, “The Cefic-LRI AMBIT software will significantly help companies towards chemical safety prediction for R&D and regulatory compliance purposes. It’s going to significantly contribute to safer chemical use and a reduction in testing by making it simpler and less complex for companies to comply with chemical regulations.”
Companies invest significant resources in research and development on chemical safety. Predicting the toxicity of substances will be enhanced through this software, which will help in ‘read-across’ – a scientific method for predicting unknown properties of one chemical from known properties of similar chemicals. This requires collaboration and data-sharing at research level, which will be empowered by this new tool.
The new AMBIT software includes a database of over 450,000 chemical structures and functional modules allowing companies to search and use existing relevant data – they can also securely upload data concerning their own chemical products. It will be particularly useful for data-poor SMEs struggling with the complex demands of legislation such as REACH.
The AMBIT tool can be downloaded or consulted online. It is freely available to Cefic member companies and the whole public. Check here.
Online Instruction Videos can be downloaded here.
Publications
ChemistryViews has written about the Cefic LRI AMBIT tool as an important step forward in sharing data for the advancement of R&D and a good example of Industry and Government collaboration on data sharing. Click here to download the publication.
“Cefic’s AMBIT software tool reaching users around the globe” by Chemical Watch.
Upcoming Workshops where AMBIT will be presented:
13-15 July 2016, Seoul, South Korea – 14th International Nanotech Symposium & Nano-Convergence Expo, NANO KOREA 2016
