Abstract
The debate on nanotechnology within the Dutch community is of recent time, the last two years seeing it take off slowly but steadily. In this complex arena the Rathenau Institute has played a central role, collecting data, collating thinking, building up arguments, and organising interactive activities such as workshops, focus groups, meetings and newsletters. These all led to the first major public meeting on nanotechnology entitled Small technology - Big consequences held on 13 October 2004, and organised in collaboration with the parliamentary Theme Commission on Technology Policy. Nanotechnology in the Netherlands is receiving political attention. This article reviews various activities of the Rathenau Institute in the field of nanotechnology and highlights their results. It also seeks to give the reader insight into the (inter)national context in which the question of nanotechnology is being debated and the factors influencing current views on the subject.
Highlights
“Small technology – Big Consequences”: Building up the Dutch debate on nanotechnology from the bottom by Rinie van Est and Ira van Keulen, Rathenau Institute
In this complex arena the Rathenau Institute has played a central role, collecting data, collating thinking, building up arguments, and organising interactive activities such as workshops, focus groups, meetings and newsletters. These all led to the first major public meeting on nanotechnology entitled “Small technology – Big consequences” held on 13 October 2004, and organised in collaboration with the parliamentary Theme Commission on Technology Policy
In 1995, a Dutch technology ‘foresight’ commission, the so-called Overleg Commissie Verkenningen, carried out a short study on nanotechnology. This was followed by a comprehensive foresight study between 1996 and 1998 coordinated by the Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT), in which most relevant Dutch and Flemish nanoscientists participated (Ten Wolde 1998). This initiative eventually led to the establishment of a Dutch national nanotechnology research consortium, named NanoNed
Summary
In April 2003, a Member of the European Parliament told us that the ETC group and the ‘Greens’, were organising a meeting on nanotechnology, to be held in the European Parliament on June 11. Immediate cause of this seminar was the report The Big Down published by the ETC group (2003). The ETC group drew public attention to a workshop held in December 2001 entitled Converging technologies for improving human performance, organised by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce in the United States (Roco, Bainbridge 2002).
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