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An integrated approach -
Cleaner and safer industry

Improving workplace air quality requires more than one technology. BRISA combines safer materials and processes, smart monitoring, predictive tools, continuous risk management, worker-centred protection and sustainability assessment.

These solutions will be developed and tested together at five industrial pilot sites to assess their performance under real operating conditions and prepare successful approaches for wider industrial use.

  • Safer materials and processes

    BRISA will apply Safe and Sustainable by Design principles to reduce potentially harmful substances before they enter the air, while maintaining product quality and performance. 

    The project will explore:
     

    • Low- or zero-crystalline-silica materials for ceramics and foundries

    • Alternative foundry sands and bio-based binders

    • Treated mineral fillers

    • Polyester recovery from end-of-life tyre fibres

    • Additives and improved air-removal processes for recycled plastics
       

    BRISA aims to achieve: Depending on the solution, a 30–100% reduction or substitution of selected substances. Specific targets include reducing selected volatile compounds from new foundry binders by at least 50%, reducing the toxicity associated with treated mineral fillers by around 75%, and reducing hazardous volatile substances from recycled plastics while improving degassing efficiency and maintaining performance.
     

  • Smart monitoring
     

    BRISA will develop modular systems to monitor how airborne particles and substances vary between tasks, locations and production stages.

    Forty wearable and relocatable semi-fixed multi-sensor units will combine time- and location-linked measurements with workplace, process and selected industrial emission data. The systems will be secure, interoperable and supported by quality and calibration records.

    Monitoring will be adapted to each pilot and may cover crystalline silica, very small particles, volatile organic compounds, PAHs, PFAS, bisphenols, brominated flame retardants and microplastics.
     

    BRISA aims to achieve: Identify when and where conditions change, evaluate prevention measures and provide reliable data for predictive and decision-support tools.
     

  • Predictive AI and digital twins
     

    Artificial intelligence will analyse monitoring and contextual data to forecast concentration trends and detect unusual events. Pilot-specific digital twins will represent selected workplace processes and simulate how particles and substances may move.

    Together, these tools will help

    • Forecast changing workplace conditions

    • Identify unusual patterns and potential exposure hotspots

    • Simulate emission and dispersion scenarios

    • Compare preventive or corrective measures

    • Communicate uncertainty and model performance
       

    BRISA aims to achieve: Test whether these tools can provide sufficiently accurate and timely information to support preventive action under changing, real-world production conditions.
     

  • Continuous risk management and decision support
     

    BRISA will combine sensor data, AI forecasts, digital-twin simulations and information about existing safety measures in a continuous risk management platform and Decision Support System.

    Dynamic Bow-Tie risk assessment will connect potential events with their causes, consequences and preventive barriers. Role-specific interfaces will provide operators and environment, health and safety managers with:
     

    • Predictive dashboards and workplace risk maps

    • Role-based alerts

    • Recommended preventive or mitigating actions

    • Records of decisions and responses

    • Escalation procedures
       

    BRISA aims to achieve: Help industrial teams interpret complex information, recognise changing conditions and select suitable responses. Workers and safety professionals will test the system’s usefulness during the pilots.
     

  • Adaptive, worker-centred protection
     

    Workers and occupational safety personnel will help design and validate BRISA’s procedures, alerts and training. Their practical knowledge will be combined with information about how routines, movement and task timing affect workplace conditions.
     

    Co-design workshops will support:
     

    • Practical procedures and role-specific guidance

    • Meaningful alert thresholds

    • Safer routes and working practices

    • Appropriate use of ventilation and protective equipment

    • Training based on real workplace situations

    • Human-in-the-loop decision-making
       

    Training will combine online and site-based learning, supported where appropriate by digital twins and immersive technologies.
     

    BRISA aims to achieve: Train at least 200 people through modular, SCORM-compatible materials and evaluate usability, acceptance, learning and workers’ perceptions of the proposed solutions.
     

  • Safe and sustainable by design
     

    BRISA will assess whether its solutions deliver benefits without creating unintended effects elsewhere. A transparent Safe and Sustainable by Design approach will consider:
     

    • Material properties and potential hazards

    • Workplace exposure and emission reduction

    • Product and process performance

    • Environmental life-cycle impacts

    • Technical and economic feasibility

    • Social considerations and worker acceptance

    • Resource use, circularity and potential trade-offs
       

    Each innovation will receive a structured performance profile to support comparison and future industrial decisions.
     

    BRISA aims to achieve: Identify solutions that are effective, practical, economically realistic and suitable for responsible long-term use.
     

From individual solutions to
one connected system

BRISA’s solutions are designed to work together.

 

Safer materials and processes reduce hazards at source. Monitoring provides information about workplace conditions. AI and digital twins help anticipate changes, while the risk management platform turns this information into decision support. Workers shape the procedures, alerts and training, and sustainability assessment examines benefits and trade-offs.
 

This integrated approach will be demonstrated at five pilot sites covering ceramics, foundry production, end-of-life tyre recycling, mineral fillers and masterbatch production, and plastics recycling.

What BRISA plans
to deliver

By the end of the project, BRISA plans to deliver:
 

  • Safer materials and improved industrial processes

  • Wearable and workplace monitoring technologies

  • Predictive AI models and digital twins

  • A continuous risk management and decision-support platform

  • Worker-centred procedures and training

  • At least 30 FAIR datasets and harmonised methods

  • Safety and sustainability profiles

  • Evidence to support replication, policy and standardisation
     

These solutions will be demonstrated in relevant industrial environments. This does not mean that every solution will be commercially available by the end of the project.

Expected impact

Across its pilot activities, BRISA aims to:

  • Reduce or replace selected substances by 30–100%, depending on the solution

  • Reduce targeted emissions at source by 50–70%

  • Reduce worker exposure by an average of at least 50%

  • Train at least 200 workers and professionals

  • Validate solutions at five pilot sites

  • Explore replication at at least five mirror sites

  • Assess technical performance, worker acceptance, environmental effects and economic feasibility

These targets will be measured against the baselines established at the start of BRISA. Results will be published as evidence becomes available.

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Long-term ambition
for 2035

If successfully validated and widely adopted, BRISA aims to support 600–800 industrial sites and contribute to:
 

  • Protecting more than 45,000 workers

  • Reducing material and energy intensity by 5–15%

  • Lowering selected compliance-related costs by 15–20%

  • Preventing hundreds of premature deaths each year

  • Supporting cleaner, more circular and human-centred industry
     

These are projected long-term impacts under wider deployment, not results already achieved by BRISA.

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