Getting to Green - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 66

Steps to Ensure Progress Toward Development of Public-Private Partnerships
The committee determined that little or no progress had been made in creating well-defined
effective partnerships as measured by execution of partnership agreements, issuance of requests for
proposals, and the establishment of governance structure—hence, it denoted this indicator as red.
Although there have been few nanotechnology-based public-private partnerships, blueprints from other
scientific fields exist, such as the HEI. Founded in 1980, the HEI is a nonprofit corporation chartered to
provide scientific research on the health effects of air pollution. Its mission is to identify and fund high-
priority research, to provide independent review of HEI-based research, and to communicate HEI's
results.
The HEI has funded and published or presented public reports on more than 250 studies on a
variety of topics, including carbon monoxide, air toxics, nitrogen oxides, diesel exhaust, ozone,
particulate matter, and other pollutants. Its board of directors includes leaders of corporations, academe,
NGOs, and policy groups. EPA and representatives from the motor-vehicle industry—Ford Motor
Company, General Motors Corporation, and Chrysler LLC—fund the organization, each with about a
50% share.
In addition to NIOSH's nanotechnology-focused public-private partnerships discussed in Chapter
3, a nanotechnology EHS-focused public-private partnership that could serve as a model was the Europe-
based Nanotechnology Capacity Building NGOs (NanoCap) (NanoCap 2009). The European
Commission, under the FP6 Science and Society programme, funded the 3-year project (2006-2009)
which was organized to increase understanding of EHS risks and ethical aspects of nanotechnology.
IVAM is an independent research and consulting firm of the University of Amsterdam Holding in the
Netherlands that conducts technologic, environmental, and occupational-health projects with trade unions,
environmental NGOs, industry, and government organizations. It led a consortium of environmental
NGOs (for example, the Baltic Environmental Forum, the European Environmental Bureau, and the
Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development), trade unions
(such as European Trade Union Institute, Health and Safety Department), and academic researchers (such
as at the University of Aarhus interdisciplinary Nanoscience center, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the
Department of Public health, the University of Amsterdam, and the Institute for Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Dynamics). NanoCap developed and publically presented recommendations that enabled
public authorities to address EHS risks related to nanotechnology. In addition, NanoCap's goal was to
encourage academe and industry to focus on reduction of sources of nanoparticles and the inclusion of
risk assessment in their work.
The NNI signature initiatives are additional examples of public-private partnerships, albeit not
focused on EHS. The signature initiatives are collaborations intended to spur the advancement of
nanotechnology in the service of national economic, security, and environmental goals. For example, the
signature initiative Nanotechnology Knowledge Infrastructure: Enabling National Leadership in
Sustainable Design is a multistakeholder group of scientists, engineers, and federal agencies charged with
developing a multidisciplinary collaboration that integrates basic research, modeling, applications
development, and ultimately a nanotechnology data infrastructure to support data-sharing and
collaboration (NNI 2013).
Overall, getting to green on “conducting and communicating the results of research funded
through public-private partnerships” may require a public-private partnership approach similar to the
HEI but with a focus on nanotechnology EHS issues, such as NIOSH's efforts or the European-based
NanoCap. Five critical elements for an effective public-private partnership are a strong independent and
accountable governance structure, adequate and shared funding, specific and agreed-on goals, transparent
sharing of results and information, and appropriate confidentiality agreements. To that end, the committee
recommends that NNI government agencies, individually and jointly, spur the organization of well-
focused public-private partnerships; however, the governance structure needs to extend well beyond the
agency. For example, HEI's Board of Directors is a recommended governance model. However, unlike
the HEI's automotive-industry focus, no single market or industry binds all nanotechnology research, so