Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: "Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US: towards effectiveness and convergence"

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Abstract:
Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US is a collaborative research project involving researchers from LSE, Chatham House|, Environmental Law Institute| and The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies| at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Its goal is to investigate the regulatory challenges posed by nanotechnologies and to assess the effectiveness of existing approaches on both sides of the Atlantic.

Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US: towards effectiveness and convergence

UK | Posted on August 10th, 2009

The project is innovative in taking a comparative perspective and in contributing to the early identification of regulatory methodologies and best practices that promote regulatory convergence between the EU and US.

Nanotechnology, a multidisciplinary field of applied science and engineering, allows the design and creation of objects at molecular scale (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter). With a rapidly expanding range of scientific and commercial applications, nanotechnologies have emerged as a new focus of EU and US regulatory efforts that seek to promote innovation while ensuring safety and enhancing public acceptability. Past developments in risk regulation, such as the case of agricultural biotechnology, have shown the importance of identifying technological risks and promoting international cooperation at an early stage in the policy process.

This project, which will result in the publication of a major report and a series of shorter papers (forthcoming in 2009), responds to the broader agenda on transatlantic regulatory harmonization set by the EU-US Summit of 30 April 2007. It is funded by a grant from the EU's 2007 budget to support pilot projects on "Transatlantic methods for handling global challenges", and its results are expected to feed into the policy recommendations that are to be presented to the EU-US Summit of 2010.

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About London School of Economics and Political Science
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a School of the University of London. It is a charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Acts (Reg no. 70527).

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Contacts:
Project coordination:

Dr Robert Falkner
London School of Economics
Department of International Relations
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK

Phone: +44 (0)20 7955 6347
Fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7446

United States:

Dr Todd Kuiken
Research Associate, Wilson Center
Phone: +1 (202) 691-4398