FP7 | FrogHeart

It’s going to be a bit scattershot today and probably for the next while as I’m having to rearrange my schedules to accommodate the Olympics, which start on Friday but the disruptions are beginning as of today.

First off, the FramingNano Project (which is part of the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme [FP7]) is holding a series of public consultation events on nanotechnology and governance. From the news item on MTB Europe,

The FramingNano UK Event, to be held in London on 11 February, provides a unique opportunity to explore the key issues of nanotechnology governance and to discuss possible new governance models. The Event will be of interest to all concerned with the responsible development of this vitally important enabling technology.

With more than 1000 consumer products containing nanomaterials on the market worldwide there is a more urgent need than ever for an effective framework of governance that ensures public safety and environmental protection whilst at the same time facilitating a responsible development of nanotechnology and promoting innovation.

Further FramingNano consultation events will be held in:

Czech Republic (Prague): 2 March 2010

The Netherlands (Amersfoort): 9 March 2010

Bern, Switzerland, 18 March 2010

Frankfurt, Germany, 24 March 2010

Italy (Rome): date to be confirmed

The FramingNano UK Event is free to attend but requires online registration at http://www.framingnano.eu/

There seems to be a lot of public consultation in Europe and I’m not hearing much about it elsewhere except maybe Australia. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Last November, the Australian Secretary for Health released a public discussion paper (pdf download) inviting consultations on a Government proposal to strengthen regulation of industrial nanomaterials use in Australia.

The deadline for submissions regarding the discussion paper is 5pm this Friday, February 12, and need to be sent to Nicola.Hall@health.gov.au by.

The discussion paper proposes specific regulatory measures for the emerging field of nanotechnology in industrial chemicals.

There doesn’t seem to be as much interest in public consultation in the US but I do see interest in education about nanotechnology. A member of the US House of Representatives, David Yu has recently introduced a bill for a Nanotechnology Education Act. Amongst the proposed act’s goals (from the news item on Nanowerk),

In order to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology to individuals in the United States, the United States must maintain world leadership in the field, including nanoscience and microtechnology, in the face of determined competition from other nations.

To maintain world leadership in nanotechnology, the United States must make a long-term investment in educating United States students in secondary schools and institutions of higher education, so that the students are able to conduct nanoscience research and develop and commercialize nanotechnology applications.

Preparing United States students for careers in nanotechnology, including nanoscience, requires that the students have access to the necessary scientific tools, including scanning electron microscopes designed for teaching, and requires training to enable teachers and professors to use those tools in the classroom and the laboratory.

As for Canada, I’m not aware of any great movement towards public consultation about or education in the field of nanotechnology.

Let there be light for my final bit (from the news item on Azonano),

RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb. At the core of RTI’s breakthrough is an advanced nanofiber structure that provides exceptional lighting management.

That’s it.

Who knew bar codes could be works of art? That may be stretching it a bit but Cliff Kuang’s article in Fast Company highlights barcodes in the shape of someone winking, wind turbines, a city skyline, someone washing her hair, and more. See them at In Japan, Even the Barcodes are Well Designed.

There has been a slew of EU (European Union) nano public awareness/engagement announcements in the last few days. A new nanotechnology consumer product inventory has been created by two consumer oganisations in Europe, the European Consumer’s Organisation (BEUC) and the European Consumer Voice in Standardisation (ANEC). Not a complete listing of all nanotechnology products available in Europe, the inventory is meant to give consumers a good overview of what kind of nano products can be found in Europe. You can read more about the inventory and follow links from the news item on Nanowerk.

It’s unclear to me how they compiled the inventory of nano products. Did they get information from the people at the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies who have their own well established inventory of products? Did they interview manufacturers in Europe or read product advertising and/or labels? I checked (very quickly) both consumer organisations’ sites but was unable to obtain any details.

The European Commission has announced a public consultation to get opinions about a Nanotechnology Research Code of Conduct. Opinions and comments can be made until January 3, 2009. You can read more from the news item on Nanowerk or you can go here to participate.

There’s the final international Conference of the FramingNano FP7 Project coming up on Dec. 15, 2009 at the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel. The topic is governance. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Many involved stakeholders share the opinion that the benefits promised by nanotechnologies will fully materialise only if their development takes place responsibly.

With this in mind, businesses, researchers, civil society representatives and regulators involved or interested in nanotechnologies are invited to take part in the final International Conference of the FramingNano FP7 project (registration free of charge) whose primary objective has been the development of a sustainable governance framework for nanotechnologies.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) held a Conference on Potential Environmental Benefits of Nanotechnology: Fostering Safe Innovation-Led Growth in July 2009 in Paris and the presentations have just been posted online. You can read about the conference and get a link to the presentations here.

I was surprised and encouraged to find Canadians making presentations at this conference. Edward W. Manning (professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and president of Tourisk, Inc.) made a presentation about sustainable solutions. After viewing his presentation, I have the distinct impression that Manning doesn’t know much about nanotechnology so what he offered were some very good points based on his work in the field of environmental management and community-based planning. From one of Manning’s slides,

A key issue is the actual users often do not know enough to understand how to ask for help or even where to go.

That’s a very important point about implementing any kind of solution and it’s often forgotten, particularly with large projects.

Another presentation came from Brian O’Connor (of FP Innovations) about cellulose nanofibres. I recently posted about FP’s potential nanoscience and business breakthrough here. At the OECD conference, I was happy to see that O’Connor’s presentation concentrated on safety and risk assessment issues and I found out that Canada has ‘new substances notification regulations’.

Hopefully, I will have the time to look at more presentations soon, although some of the more science-based ones may be too advanced for me.

FrogHeart

Commentary about nanotech, science policy and communication, society, and the arts

Tag Archives: FP7

Free nanotechnology governance conferences in Europe, nano education in US; revolutionary lighting technology

Beautiful bar codes; nano public awareness in Europe; OECD nano presentations

Last November, the Australian Secretary for Health released a public discussion paper (pdf download) inviting consultations on a Government proposal to strengthen regulation of industrial nanomaterials use in Australia.
The deadline for submissions regarding the discussion paper is 5pm this Friday, February 12, and need to be sent to Nicola.Hall@health.gov.au by.
The discussion paper proposes specific regulatory measures for the emerging field of nanotechnology in industrial chemicals.

In order to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology to individuals in the United States, the United States must maintain world leadership in the field, including nanoscience and microtechnology, in the face of determined competition from other nations.
To maintain world leadership in nanotechnology, the United States must make a long-term investment in educating United States students in secondary schools and institutions of higher education, so that the students are able to conduct nanoscience research and develop and commercialize nanotechnology applications.
Preparing United States students for careers in nanotechnology, including nanoscience, requires that the students have access to the necessary scientific tools, including scanning electron microscopes designed for teaching, and requires training to enable teachers and professors to use those tools in the classroom and the laboratory.