Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US: Towards Effectiveness and Convergence
Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US is a collaborative research project to investigate the regulatory challenges posed by nanotechnologies and to assess the effectiveness of existing approaches on both sides of the Atlantic. A forthcoming conference on Transatlantic Regulatory Co-operation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies will bring together nanotechnology and regulatory experts from the US and EU, and its purpose is to discuss recommendations from this research project but also to generate and examine new ideas that would enable greater transatlantic cooperation and convergence on nanotechnology oversight today and in the future.
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.
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. 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.
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.
This year in September, there will also be a conference on Transatlantic Regulatory Co-operation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies. The conference brings together nanotechnology and regulatory experts from the US and EU. Its purpose is to discuss recommendations from this research project but also to generate and examine new ideas that would enable greater transatlantic cooperation and convergence on nanotechnology oversight today and in the future.
Date: Thursday 10th & Friday 11th September 2009
Venue: Chatham House, 10 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LE, UK
Source: London School of Economics