14 DAY TRIAL // Official with the US National Science Foundation (NSF) announce that they have just awarded two new grants for researching the impact of nanotechnology, totaling $12.5 million over the next 5 years.
The largest part of the new funds will go towards investigating the ethical, legal, economic and policy implications of using nanotechnology at a large scale.
Though relatively new, this field of science holds great promise for our future. It however implies some challenges as well, given that it could easily lead to environmental change for example.
Additionally, the health effects of nanoparticles have been little scrutinized, and these types of researches are needed before any other type of work is conducted into understanding nanoparticles.
The new grant was split between the Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) at the Arizona State University (ASU) and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The former received $6,507,000 million, while the latter got $6,076,000 million. All funds will be awarded over a period of five years.
“These centers play a pivotal role in understanding and anticipating the potential societal impacts of nanotechnology and engaging multiple stakeholders in discussions about the future of emerging technologies,” explains scientist Myron Gutmann.
“They are truly interdisciplinary centers, spanning the social, natural and engineering sciences,” adds the expert, who is the assistant director of the NSF Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences division.
The CNS-UCSB will utilize the research grant to conduct investigations into how to deploy emerging nanotechnologies around the world, in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia.
“The nano enterprise is a rapidly expanding. It is a highly distributed global phenomenon with the potential for broad social and economic implications,” adds scientist Barbara Herr Harthorn.
The expert holds an appointment as an anthropologist and associate professor of feminist studies at the UCSB, and is also the director of the CNS center at the university.
“The CNS at UCSB has developed novel educational programs that provide scientists-in-training hands-on experience,” the official says further.
“Our goal is to generate knowledge useful for NSF, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, policymakers, and the public,” Harthorn concludes.