Getting to Green - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 49

4
Getting to Green
INTRODUCTION
The research enterprise that is investigating potential risks to human health and ecosystems posed
by engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) engages a broad and multidisciplinary array of stakeholders,
including researchers, the industrial sector, and the public at large. The success of research in this domain,
as in others, depends on identifying—through stakeholder engagement—the most critical questions that
need to be addressed; networking in the United States and internationally among investigators in
government, academe, and industry; developing standards for analyses and reference materials; using
uniform terminology and data descriptions; capturing data in an accessible, quality-assured database; and
continuing to refine research methods. Figure 4-1 represents the committee's construct for a successful
research enterprise in the potential environmental, health, and safety (EHS) risks posed by ENMs. The
figure describes the interrelated and interdependent research activities that are driven by the evolving
production of ENMs. A critical output is an evaluation of risk that informs decision-making on ENMs.
The diagram is aspirational, offering a vision for an integrated and strategic system for developing data
that will provide for the characterization of ENMs, refinement of experimental methods, and support for
model development to predict and then prevent and manage risks associated with new ENMs. Many of
the elements are already in place, but such an overall framework has not yet been articulated. The
committee considers that the development and integration of the elements of such a framework are
essential for advancing the progress necessary to “get to green” on the committee's identified research
priorities. Similar frameworks have been articulated for other research endeavors; for example, a recent
report on “precision medicine” by the National Research Council provided a theoretical framework for
translating advances in biomedical research into clinical practice (NRC 2011; Figure 3-1).
Of necessity, Figure 4-1 provides a simplified vision of a complex system of knowledge creation
and use, but each of its elements is critical. The system places research into two broad domains:
“laboratory world”, process-based or mechanism-based research directed at the “critical elements of
nanomaterial interactions” (a central component of the committee's conceptual framework; see Chapter
1); and “real world”, systems research involving observational studies that examine the effects of ENMs
on complex experimental models of human health and ecosystems. The research is supported by the
availability of materials (reference materials, materials from inventories developed with industry input,
and materials released and modified through their value chain and life cycle), analytic methods and
instrumentation, and a “knowledge commons”, which is central to this schema. The knowledge commons
incorporates a standard nomenclature, data classifications, and storage of data with sufficient detail to
facilitate informed modeling. The success of the research enterprise requires that all researchers place
their data (in a compatible form) in a data-management commons that is supported by appropriate
hardware and software.