Going Beyond Green - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 76

Office (NNCO) establish its own stakeholder advisory council to develop best practices for this vital
function and commit to funding regular workshops to bring together US and foreign researchers who are
working on nanotechnology EHS research and other stakeholders.
Public-private partnerships. Engagement with stakeholders is important for shaping research on
nanotechnology-related risk, but it does not fully leverage the opportunity to expand and enrich risk
research through focused partnerships with them. To implement the ambitious strategies outlined by the
NNI effectively, this committee and others will require substantial leveraging of federal funds, and the
committee believes that public-private partnerships need to be more fully developed. Not only do such
structures create the potential for greater resources, but direct stakeholder participation in partnerships
that have defined research or communication goals is optimal for engagement.
The committee has identified five elements that are critical for effective public-private
partnerships: a strong independent and accountable governance structure that provides transparency in
selecting projects, conducting research, ensuring quality, and disseminating results; commitments of
adequate and shared funding; open processes to develop priorities and specific goals; transparent sharing
and peer review of research, including a commitment to release all research results and underlying data
(NRC 2012, p. 173); and confidentiality agreements that balance the proprietary needs of industry
participants with the public need to share information and make decision-making processes transparent.
Minimizing the potential for conflicts between applications research and implications research.
The committee maintains that the NNI would benefit from a clearer separation of authority and
accountability for its EHS research enterprise and its mandate to promote nanotechnology development
and commercialization. The committee also acknowledges that, in the absence of a change in its statutory
mandate, establishment of wholly separate management and budgetary structures and authorities for the
NNI's dual functions may not be realistic. Nonetheless, steps can be taken at both the agency level and
across the initiative as a whole to address this concern.
Agencies should create and adhere to strong scientific-integrity policies that govern both
intramural and extramural research and should consider creating an ombudsman position to receive,
investigate, and resolve complaints or concerns about bias and conflicts of interest related to
nanotechnology research.
The NNCO should also develop and disseminate best practices for identifying, managing, and
preventing conflicts of interest and bias in the planning, conduct, and reporting of research. Different
offices and senior staff members that have parallel and comparable degrees of authority should be
independently responsible for program management of the two lines of research within an agency.
Moreover, agency scientists trained in the health or environmental sciences should be engaged in
management of EHS risk-related research where possible.
SUSTAINING AND NURTURING RESEARCH EXCELLENCE
Whatever organization oversees the nanotechnology EHS research strategy, among its most
important functions will be to secure and maintain adequate funding for the program. The research
strategies outlined by the NNI and by this committee cannot be accomplished without a sustained
commitment over at least the next decade. Such an investment will yield a more acceptable and ultimately
more successful nanotechnology economy. It is only through a clear understanding of the scientific data
and uncertainties that possible EHS risks posed by ENMs can be reduced. Such information accelerates
nanotechnology development, lowers barriers to the introduction of new nanotechnology-containing
products in the marketplace, and ensures public trust in the regulatory processes that protect the health of
workers, the public, and the environment.
Multiple sources of funding are needed to support the research strategy, but a sustained high level
of management and funding through a single agency is needed if indeed the critical research on EHS is to
be accomplished. A successful knowledge commons requires strong leadership. Such commitments of
funding will not be possible in the absence of a lead agency or organization that sees the issues as an