(NHI Nanoblog) The National Nanotechnology Initiative—an umbrella program that’s supposed to offer a framework to support the assortment of government agencies working in the burgeoning field — is asking for input on its blueprint for the next three years and beyond.
The NNI, launched in 2001, will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a big conference early next month. But this week, the project, part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, released a draft strategic plan. You can comment on the plan until Nov. 30 via this portal, although you do have to log in.
The proposed plan is full of lots of governmentese — its preparers apparently consulted lots of “stakeholders” to figure out what kind of policies the federal government should “develop and sustain” — but it’s fairly easy to break down. The NNI wants to focus on research involving nanomaterials, which are super-small substances (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) with amazing properties that can be used in commercial and medical products.
That’s no surprise: ask any federal official whose work involves nano and he or she will immediately start talking about what we don’t know about nanoparticles.
But what are important are the research priorities the document describes. They include boosting “fundamental knowledge” of materials and processes on the nanoscale; development of nanomaterials, as well as nano-based devices; and exploring nanomanufacturing. But health and safety also are a key part of the plan. In fact, one of the four major goals listed in the report is “support responsible development of nanotechnology.”
According to the plan, that task includes developing and using tools to measure nanoparticles and their effect, as well as risk assessment models, to help regulators and researchers figure out what’s safe and at what exposure level. Creating ways to track the health of both those who work with nanomaterials and the public is also on that list.
As a sideline, the people who’ve put the NNI document together have also created a specific strategy for environmental health and safety (“EHS” in the business/research parlance), to help the regulatory agencies feel their way toward rules for nano manufacturers, users and the environment, including people.
What happens to this report is dependent on the upcoming comments, as well as the political waters ahead when a retooled Congress comes back to town in January. While there’s lots of research going on at the federal level involving nanotechnology, especially in the safety area, there’s been little political will for pushing sweeping changes to the laws that govern these kinds of substances. That seems unlikely to change when the conversation turns to cutting budgets and repealing health-care reform.