Seit 2005

11.04.2011

NanoCode Synthesebericht: Stakeholderkonsultation zum EU Code of Conduct

Der NanoCode Synthesebericht fasst die Erkenntnisse aus der NanoCode Stakeholderbefragung mittels quantitativen und qualitativen Erhebungsmethoden zusammen. Im Fokus stand der Europäische Verhaltenskodex für verantwortungsvolle Forschung im Bereich der Nanowissenschaften und -technologien (EU-CoC). Der Bericht gibt einen Einblick in das Ausmass der Bekanntheit des EU-CoC unter den angesprochenen Stakeholdern und beschäftigt sich mit deren Erwartungen und Einschätzungen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auch den Stand der Umsetzung des EU-CoC und sie umfassen Empfehlungen der einbezogenen Experten in den Bereichen Kommunikation, Anreizstrukturen, und möglicher Umsetzungskontrollen.

The Synthesis Report of the NanoCode Survey includes information from detailed Country Reports of the Consortium partners from seven EU-Member States (Italy, UK, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Germany) and three Non-EU Countries (Switzerland, Argentina and The Republic of South Africa). In each of the Consortium partner countries, representatives from research, institutions, business and civil society organisations contributed to the quantitative survey. Additionally, a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups have been organised to deepen the country-specific attitudes and to develop detailed recommendations. Furthermore, a group of participants from international organisations based in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, India, Korea, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Norway, Portugal and the United States answered the questionnaire and completed the colourful picture of comments and recommendations for the further development of the EU-CoC. An Assembled Report of the detailed Country Reports and one about the International Organisations is available for download from this website.

All in all, 304 European and international experts contributed to the NanoCode Survey between August and October 2010. Furthermore, about 150 experts had been involved in qualitative interviews or focus groups in the different countries between October 2010 and January 2011. With respect to this large and inhomogeneous sample, the results offer a surprisingly unambiguous tendency.

First of all, there is a broad general support of the EU-CoC principles with about 80% of agreement. The principle acceptance of the Code of Conduct is additionally visible in a two third majority of the participants who appraised the EU-CoC as an appropriate instrument for complementing regulation and for encouraging a dialogue about health, safety, environmental, ethical, social and legal issues. Only 15% thought that the Code is "not useful at all" for them.

Further core findings:

  • Contrary to the high level of agreement to the EU-CoC, a very low rate of adaption was observed in practice (only 20% of the participants stated an adaption by their organisation).
  • Several principles (e.g. Accountability, Inclusiveness, Precaution and Sustainability) should be revised.
  • Only 21% of the participants were aware of governmental activities to enforce the EU-CoC.
  • It will be fairly difficult to achieve compliance without an improvement of the awareness and appropriate communication strategies for different target groups.
  • Several suggestions were made by the participants - some of them easy to adopt, some of them requesting for fundamental changes.

Please visit our Report category for the elaborated version of the NanoCode Survey Synthesis Report including the detailed results and recommendations.