Although many predictions for the hydrogen economy in the last decade have proven optimistic, the maturity of it is now increasingly evident by the substantial investments in R&D, demonstration and industrialisation made by public and private institutions in Europe. The USA and Japan are leading the hydrogen based energy infrastructure, becoming a mainstream solution for society’s need to transition to clean, renewable and widely available energy sources. To ensure that non-technical barriers to the deployment of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen (FCH) technologies are properly addressed, the H2TRUST project has been created by a team of highly experienced and qualified industry and academic experts with the following objectives:- Assess industry efforts to assure FCH technology is safe and that there is an adequate regulation, hazard awareness, incident readiness and ability to respond to public concerns.- Hazard and risk assessment in the FCH industry in each of the main application areas (H2 Production, Storage and Distribution, Mobility and Vehicles, Non-vehicles and residential power generation).- Systematically map safety issues and assess how they are addressed.- Compile information demonstrating safety due diligence and best practices.- Seek input from previous, on-going and upcoming Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) demonstrations and pre-normative and training projects and from similar international activities.- Make recommendations for further safety efforts by FCH community.- Develop communications network to manage public reaction to incidents and give documented responses.- Disseminate the results so as to create a long lasting culture of safety practices in the industry and a legacy of tools and knowledge serving to reinforce best practices and assure public confidence.H2TRUST is a response to the FCH JU call for proposals in their Annual Implementation Plan of 2012, page 101(Topic SP1-JTI-FCH.2012.5.5: Assessment of safety issues related to fuel cells and hydrogen applications).