About Hefestos

Organisations participating in HEFESTOS gain access to unique strategic and technical advantages, including:

If your organisation is considering joining the HEFESTOS Hub, participation follows a structured and transparent process designed to ensure balanced representation across the value chain and meaningful engagement by all actors.

HEFESTOS is conceived as an open and progressive cooperation space that grows as new organisations join.

1. Send your Expression of Interest
   Use the website contact form to inform the HEFESTOS team of your interest in joining the Hub. No sensitive or company‑specific data are required at this stage.
2. Sign the NDA & MoU (Onboarding)
   Organisations will receive a standard onboarding package consisting of:
   • Non‑Disclosure Agreement (NDA): All participants sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement that governs access, use, protection and reporting of confidential information, under clearly defined conditions for information sharing during meetings, interviews or questionnaires.
   • Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): The Memorandum of Understanding clarifies roles, responsibilities and engagement principles, and defines participation rules, the scope of engagement, and how information may be used in aggregated or anonymised form in public outputs, including its potential contribution to future voluntary pledges or pilot actions.
   This framework guarantees strict compliance with EU competition law and creates a predictable and trusted environment for technical collaboration.
3. Join the HEFESTOS Coordination Group
   Once onboarded, organisations become part of the Coordination Group, the central forum of the Hub. Members may review structured evidence on BFR uses, alternatives and value chains, discuss complex applications and substitution barriers, and contribute inputs to the BFR Substitution Action Roadmap that will inform EU‑level actions.
4. Take part in consultations and technical activities
   Members choose how and when to engage, depending on relevance and availability. Typical activities include:
   • Questionnaires capturing comparable, cross‑sector input (especially helpful for SMEs),
   • one‑to‑one interviews on specific applications or barriers,
   • technical and sector meetings to validate findings and prioritise use cases,
   • feedback on analytical drafts (applications map, alternatives landscape, gap analysis),
   • participation in pilot actions and potential voluntary pledges (actor‑specific commitments) that demonstrate practical substitution pathways.
   All tools are designed to avoid any exchange of commercially sensitive information and are moderated by an independent technical secretariat to keep discussions within a safe scope.
5. Benefit from continuous visibility
   Participating organisations may:
   • display their logo on the HEFESTOS website to signal commitment to safer chemicals,
   • share links to relevant projects or initiatives (e.g., EU‑funded or national),
   • help surface emerging solutions and knowledge that feed into the collective evidence base.
6. Strict compliance with EU competition law
   The cooperation framework includes safeguards to prevent any exchange of commercially sensitive information. Discussions are moderated by AIMPLAS as a neutral technical facilitator.
7. Anonymised and aggregated outputs
   Any information contributed by organisations is compiled in aggregated or non‑attributable format. No company‑specific data are made public or shared without explicit consent.
8. Secure data handling and protection
   All data are stored on secure servers following the Data Management Plan and EU GDPR requirements. Access is restricted to authorised project staff.

HEFESTOS brings together the full BFR value chain, ensuring that substitution decisions are informed by perspectives ranging from upstream raw materials to end-of-life and regulatory oversight. The initiative welcomes:

• Industrial actors
  
  • flame retardant producers
  • compounders and formulators
  • processors and converters
  • manufacturers / OEMs in construction, automotive and cables
• Innovation and research actors
  
  • research and technology organisations (RTOs)
  • universities
  • labs and testing bodies
• Regulatory and policy stakeholders
  
  • public authorities
  • standardisation bodies
  • EU agencies and platforms
• Associations and networks
  
  • sector associations
  • technical platforms
  • circular economy networks
• Recycling and end-of-life actors
  
  • recyclers
  • waste managers

The Hub is open to any organisation willing to contribute expertise and participate in the coordinated transition towards safer flame-retardant strategies.

Whether upstream or downstream, a technology provider or a public authority, each perspective is essential to building a realistic and coordinated European transition towards safer flame retardant solutions.