An unprecedented collaborative effort of members of the three projects is culminating in the final stages of production of the Blueprint for the Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council.
This Blueprint is a planning document that presents a possible design and role for a new organisation that would be tasked with governing risks from nano-based products, a Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council (NRGC). It has been developed in a co-creation approach with key stakeholders and represents the current view of how such a council could be organised.
What can be the added value of a Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council (NRGC)? What challenges and opportunities should it address? What should its mission be and what goals should it pursue? What activities should it conduct, and how should the Council be organised? The answers to these questions form the building blocks of this document, which describes the goals that the Council could aim at, and why, and the activities and services it could offer.
Its main purpose is to provide a framework to test elements of the council design and further engage with key stakeholders in regulation, industry, and NGOs to collect their feedback as possible members of the NRGC. This process will be used to refine the design of the NRGC prior to a possible launch in 2022.
The projects are now moving to (a) testing it, (b) refining it, (c) identifying possible members, (d) establishing conditions for its sustainability, (e) launching it, and, finally, (f) accompanying it through the first months of activities.
Any representative from regulation, industry, and NGOs who are interested in contributing to the NRGC is invited to contact us and join the stakeholder database here, indicating specific interest in the NRGC.
Acknowledgments:
Marie-Valentine Florin
Authors: NMBP-13 Council Task Force: Rob Aitken, Dalila Antunes, Arto Säämänen, Marie-Valentine Florin, Monique Groenewold, Panagiotis Isigonis, Andrea Porcari, Janeck Scott-Fordsmand, Tommaso Serchi.