The ChIRS curriculum was designed to deliver graduates who can innovate responsibly, combining advanced chemical design and industrial perspectives with hazard/risk assessment, toxicology, and regulatory competence for safe and sustainable chemicals and materials.
Upon successful completion of the programme, graduates will have achieved a set of General Learning Outcomes designed to fulfill all the knowledge and skills necessary to approach any challenge in the sustainable management of chemicals:
The ChIRS is a two-year Master Programme, including one year of classes, an internship and a research project and thesis.
The Master programme awards a total of 120 ECTS. It is articulated in two main components: the first year comprises curricular activities accounting for 60 ECTS credits; the second year includes an internship period of 15 ECTS, a research project and thesis dissertation (39 ECTS) and transferable skills training (6 ECTS), accounting for 60 credits.
The ChIRS programme fulfill the GLOs with an extremely flexible teaching offer.
Students can build their personal study plan by selecting the optional Course Units that best fit their background and interests. Ten optional Course Units make the first academic year.
Course Units are organised into Elective Groups. The Course Units inside each Elective Group address one essential aspect of the SSbD approach.
This structure assures that all students are familiar with all aspects of SSbD, while focusing on the subjects most interesting for them.
Each Elective Group addresses one aspect of the Safe and Sustainable by Design approach:
This group focuses on Step 4: Environmental Sustainability Assessment, which uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts of chemicals and materials across their value chain. This step is crucial for achieving the SSbD framework's objective of minimizing the environmental footprint of chemicals, particularly concerning climate change, resource use, ecosystems, and biodiversity, from a life cycle perspective.
This elective group focuses on Step 1: Hazard Assessment (intrinsic properties), which is the foundational and mandatory step of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework's safety evaluation. The learning objectives emphasize preparing students to understand the intrinsic properties of chemicals and materials necessary to establish a safety baseline before considering broader sustainability aspects.
This elective group concentrates the sustainability principles of Green Chemistry, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Chemistry required to apply the fundamentals of the SSbD framework.
This group provides fundamentals of toxicology tailored for students with a chemistry background.
This group focuses on developping the management skills necessary to successfully implement SSbD.
This group provides a view of international regulations and policies
Covers step (5) of the safety assessment in SSbD methodology: socio-economic sustainability assessment. Understand social impact. Identify externalites (e.g. critical raw materials) in economic assessment.
Covers step 2 of the safety assessment in SSbD methodology: human health and safety aspects in the chemical production and processing phase. Options cover different views of industrial production.
Covers step 3 of the safety assessment in SSbD methodology: human health and safety aspects in the final application, focusing on predicting and managing exposure risks associated with the chemical or material in its final form.
This group is designed to equip students with the practical methodologies and skills necessary to successfully implement the SSbD framework in research and innovation activities.
Each Elective group contains three optional Course Units.
All course units are optional and can be chosen from within the Elective Groups, each one organised to address on essential aspect of the SSbD approach.
Course Units are worth 6 ECTS credits each. Below you can find which Course Units are offered within each Elective Group.
Each Course Unit is built from three stand-alone Modules.
Each Module is worth 3 ECTS credits and taught within one week of classes. Modules are offered by lecturers from the Universities of the ChIRS consortium or by invited specialists from industry.
In total the ChIRS consortium offer 64 modules, from which students choose 30 to complete the first curricular year.
Below you can find the modules composing each Course Unit.
The second year consists of an internships, a research project and thesis and Transferable Skills training
Transferable skills training develops practical, transversal competences that you can use in various settings, such as problem-solving, teamwork, communication, project management, and innovative mindsets. ChIRS training in transferable skills account for 6 ECTS and includes team building, innovation, research, communication, and laboratory skills. These are offered as short modules and applied to a group project carried out from the first year to the second, culminating in work presented to the community at the ChIRS annual symposium, where students train to communicate their work clearly and professionally.
The 15 ECTS internship gives students the chance to turn classroom knowledge into real‑world experience. During this internship, students join teams in the chemical industry or in research centers, where they contribute to ongoing projects and gain authentic work experience. These placements help students develop technical skills, professional confidence and a clearer vision of their future career path. The ChIRS consortium supports each student in finding a suitable host thanks to its wide network of internship partners across the EU and beyond, opening doors to unique opportunities in sustainable and innovative chemical research and applications.
Master tstudents pursue a focused research project that leads to a research dissertation, fulfilling the final requirement for attaining a 2nd-cycle (Master’s) degree and strengthening the ability to apply advanced knowledge with growing independence.
Students may carry out this work at a partner university different from the Host University, as a jointly supervised project between two partner universities, or in collaboration with industry partners.