NanoSafety - Risk Governance of Manufactured Nanoparticles (STOA)

The NanoSafety project will deal with the governance of the potential environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks of manufactured nanoparticles (MNP). The current situation regarding risk assessment of nanoparticles is characterised by considerable knowledge gaps on the one hand side and demand for regulatory action stated by a number of stakeholders and parts of the general public on the other side.

Assuming that many of the uncertainties regarding EHS aspects of engineered nanomaterials may not vanish over the next five to ten years, the project focus on the following questions:
• What do we need to know to justify political (regulatory) action in the light of the existing and perhaps remaining uncertainties?
• Does current scientific research really address the most pressing questions in terms of informing policy and public, or is it mainly guided by a merely scientific agenda?
• Are there open issues that require new approaches to research cooperation and perhaps additional funding?

The second part of the project is dedicated to risk communication problems and needs for EHS risks of MNP. This will mainly be based on a review of the scientific literature on communicating uncertainties and problems of risk management, on the public perception of nanorisks and on evaluations of selected nanotechnology-related communication and dialogue events.