This Nanostructure Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) award is in response to the Active Nanostructure and Nanosytems (ANN) solicitation (NSF 05-610) and the theme of Societal and Educational Issues Associated with Long-Term Nanoscale Science and Engineering Advances. This project evaluates existing federal and state government regulatory capacity--defined here as sufficiency in scientific expertise, legal authority, organizational design, and relevant regulatory frameworks--to address the societal and policy challenges posed by emerging nanoscale innovations and products, and, where appropriate, make recommendations for building requisite capacity to address these challenges. The project assesses current state and federal regulatory capacity and identifies what is required to build capacity where it is not already sufficient to address the novel and crosscutting challenges of nanotechnology. The project's focus is on two crosscutting applications derived from the NNI Strategic Plan (2004)--environmental improvement, and medicine and health--but lessons obtained apply more generally. Overall, effective regulatory institutions, in the form of organizations, expertise, and frameworks, can serve to promote the advancement of nanotechnology research and development, promote smooth and timely commercialization of products containing nanoscale technologies, protect the public from possible negative effects of nanotechnology and the nanotech revolution, and, in the process, be responsive to public concerns regarding nanotechnology and the nanotech revolution. Additional attention is paid to assessing and developing requisite capacity in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a state currently at the forefront of nanotechnology research and development with requisite expectations about the centrality of nanotechnology to its future economic health. Education and outreach efforts address the concomitant need to build capacity among current and future policymakers, particularly administrative professionals in relevant federal, state, and local agencies and offices, as well as journalists who cover nanotechnology related issues. The NNI expects the workforce of the 21st century to have specialized training in nanoscale materials and processes; this must include policymakers and journalists.
