Collaborative Proposals: 1235693/1235706 Guston, David H. / Eggleson, Kathleen K.
Intellectual Merit: The workshop will help move nanotechnology EHS research forward in order to more quickly assess the possible impacts of nanomaterials on health and the environment by characterizing the materials in question.
A series of background papers will address such topics as:
1. To what extent can we identify complex engineered nanomaterials (CENMs) and their trajectories in existing nano literature, patents, and products?
2. What do we know about the materials that are being or might be used for CENMs, in terms of current and anticipated functions, characterizations, toxicological properties, and life-cycle knowledge?
3. How do current leading scientific researchers understand the medium-term future development, applications and governing issues of CENMs that constitute the primary focus of this group?
4. What do we know about the ability of current regulatory science and regulatory policy pathways (knowledge systems including standards of evidence, decision support, etc.) to manage CENMs?
5. To what extent can we anticipate current approaches to predictive toxicology for nanomaterials to apply to CENMs?
Broader Impact:
The workshop on the anticipatory governance of CENMs will take fulladvantage of the dissemination abilities of the centers and groups involved. Background papers and the draft report will be available on the websites of the centers and notice of their availability sent to their multiple listservs with thousands of subscribers. After revisions from the workshop vetting, the background papers and the workshop report will be suitable for submission to journals such as Journal of Nanoparticle Research or Nature Nanotechnology. The executive committee may also arrange a briefing for the broader nano community following the publication of the papers. The inclusion of public and private sector participants in the workshop means that any perspectives and/or recommendations derived there are more likely to find receptive audiences.
In the 21st century, we are making decisions about increasingly sophisticated technologies based on nano scale science. For the common good, it is important that a diverse range of experts and public stakeholders consider global impacts and work together toward development of just governance strategies. On November 12, 2012, at the University of Notre Dame, this NSF project facilitated a roundtable discussion of PhD-level experts in biological science, political science, and engineering to discuss the most sophisticated and complex nanotechnologies being developed with respect to the challenges of their governance—that is, fair and sensible guidelines, practices, policies, regulations, rules, and laws about them. Christopher Bosso (Northeastern University), JR DeShazo (UCLA), Kathleen Eggleson (University of Notre Dame), and David Guston (Arizona State University) delivered prepared remarks and answered questions from the public audience. Attendees included students and faculty representing many different university departments, and also representatives from a local technology startup business. This public event took place while the experts named above were meeting at the University of Notre Dame for two days as the first work stage of a larger NSF-sponsored Collaborative Research Project, Workshop on the Anticipatory Governance of Complex Engineered Nanomaterials. Collaborative research between Arizona State University (David Guston, PI) and the University of Notre Dame (Kathleen Eggleson, PI) has resulted in the commissioning of research articles representing different areas of academic expertise. These documents will be discussed at the project's main workshop event, receiving feedback from representatives of a range of government agencies, academic experts, and thought leaders. PIs Eggleson and Guston will meet at Arizona State University (ASU) for detailed planning of the workshop, to be held through ASU in Washington DC in 2015 or early 2016. Ultimately, discussions and writings associated with this project are intended to facilitate dialogue and wise decision-making surrounding increasingly complex nanotechnologies; toward protection of the health, environmental, and economic interests of the US and global communities.
