Sustainable polymers in liquid formulations – it's time to join the revolution

Bring together stakeholders across industry, academia and the policy community to collaborate on a pre-competitive basis throughout the value chain on research and innovation to enable a shift towards sustainable PLFs.

Provide a forum for the PLFs stakeholders and supply chains to track and discuss progress towards the delivery of the roadmap and completion of the missions.

Engage with a diverse range of funding bodies, from UK Research and Innovation(UKRI) to regulators, private finance and philanthropists, to inform innovation funding and form a portfolio of projects to catalyse the delivery of both missions.

Promote research on PLFs, including supporting academic communities to publish research articles on this topic, starting with a PLFs-themed issue across several of our peer-reviewed journals.

Assist in the development of appropriate regulation, governance, standards and metrics for the sustainable production, use and recycling of PLFs with UK and European partners, starting by integrating our work on PLFs into that of the European Chemical Industry Council.

Host a series of topic-specific workshops and networking events to enable knowledge-sharing and collaboration focused on sustainable PLFs. This will also include a large-scale annual PLFs conference.

Convene collaborative consortia for system-wide and game-changing research and innovation project proposals that will deliver biodegradable PLFs and advance circular infrastructure.

Adopt the PLF terminology and publish research to stimulate development of this field of research and innovation.

Develop research focused on the Five Fs: feedstock, the formulation of PLFs, their functionality, their fate – including the effects of PLFs pollution on the environment – and the future environment for PLFs.

Collaborate with industry and funders to develop RD&I programmes that tackle sustainability transition issues faced by industry across the lifecycle.

Develop and enhance specialist training pathways on sustainability assessment to facilitate evaluation and monitoring of circularity of PLFs (and other materials relevant to sustainability), including through lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodologies.

Commit to developing and scaling biodegradable PLFs by 2030.

Commit to advancing the circular economy infrastructure for PLFs by 2030, across the value chain. 

Collaborate in consortia funding applications to build capability for the transition to sustainable PLFs.

Collaborate where feasible on a precompetitive basis throughout the value chain on research and innovation that will enable the shift to sustainable PLFs, including committing financial resources to precompetitive RD&I projects.

Commit to a shared knowledge base via increased non-proprietary information sharing to upskill the industry ecosystem through publication, engagement and collaboration.

Make internal infrastructure and process changes to reduce potential environmental pollution via PLFs.

Establish a national chemicals regulator that bring greater cohesiveness and connectivity across government departments, recognising the current coordination challenge across departments. 

Ensure UKRI recognises PLFs as a large-scale sustainability challenge linked to its ‘Building a Green Future' strategic theme, to signal the potential value of research proposals linked to the two PLFs missions.

Encourage the UK Government, UKRI, ARIA and other research funders to recognise the sustainability challenge PLFs present and acknowledge the innovation opportunities from sustainable PLFs.

Integrate the concept of PLFs into overarching international policy frameworks, such as the UN Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and the Prevention of Pollution; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; the European Green Deal; and the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

Call on the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and OECD to work with industry to establish new metrics for scrutiny protocols pertaining to safety, toxicology and sustainability of PLFs.

Widen future Horizon Europe grants to also focus on non-plastic polymers in their circular bioeconomy joint undertaking calls.