Nanotechnology In Europe Research Articles

Multi-level Governance of Nanotechnology in Europe: Policy Variation in Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands

Within Europe, there has been the emergence of an EU-wide nanotechnology regulatory regime with regional authorities gaining greater decision-making power over a wide range of policy areas. However, despite the development of more comprehensive European nanotechnology policies, considerable variation remains in how member states implement these rules and regulations. In this article, we utilize a multi-level governance approach, to explore this seeming paradox in order to explain cross-national policy variation within a common European regulatory framework. This broader analytical approach allows us to account for the wide range of actors involved in European nanotechnology governance including, national governments, international organizations, research institutes, firms, and advocacy groups. Case study analysis of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands emphasizes how differences in domestic policy styles explain variation in the implementation of nanotechnology regulations across states. At the same time, the engagement of national governments with European and international regulatory efforts highlights the important role that states play in contributing to the development of a common nanotechnology regime in Europe.

EuroNanoForum 2015: развитие нанотехнологий в Европе

EuroNanoForum 2015: развитие нанотехнологий в Европе

Patenting Nanotechnology in Europe: Making a Good Start? An Analysis of Issues in Law and Regulation

Nanotechnology is the technology that concerns itself with the smallest units of matter and promises manipulation of matter on the level of individual molecules. It is expected that vastly improved quality of many kinds of products will be the result. The patenting of nanotech inventions is well under way in Europe, but going down to the most elemental level raises new and important questions. For example, how does patenting at the nano level relate to similar technology on the super-nano level? Also fundamental questions can be asked, such as: should matter at all be patentable at the most elemental level? This article seeks to give a first overview of questions of law and regulation concerning the patentability of inventions in the field of nanotechnology under the European Patent Convention.

European and international standardisation progress in the field of engineered nanoparticles

CEN-STAR supports researchers to be experts in standardization committees in new challenging issues: Standardization needs to reach consensus from new knowledge. In Europe, pre-normative and co-normative research can be supported financially by the FP7 for research. The area of nanoscience and nanotechnology is developing new standards in Europe within the CEN/TC 352, at the international level at the ISO/TC 229. Particular works are about measurement methods and tests for toxicity at the nanoscale. Some activities are done within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and in some other parts of the world, such as the Asian Nano-Forum and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States. Main items for standardization include: definition terminology; metrology instrumentation, reference methods, and materials; measurement methods for applications (physical, chemical, material, electronics); and measurement methods for interface in health, environment, and safety. For toxicity at the nanoscale, particular issues have to be resolved, such as: reproducibility of experiments; reference protocols and use of quality management standards for research (ISO 9001); and intercomparability of results following “round robin” tests. The little information about standardization in nanotechnology in Europe includes the Code of Conduct for Responsible Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies Research and the European Commission mandate to CEN/TC 352, as well as the European Union (EU) projects NanoStrand, NanoInteract, NanoImpactNet, and others.

Religious beliefs and public attitudes toward nanotechnology in Europe and the United States

How do citizens make sense of nanotechnology as more applications reach the market and the mainstream media start to debate the potential risks and benefits of technology? As with many other political and scientific issues, citizens rely on cognitive shortcuts or heuristics to make sense of issues for which they have low levels of knowledge. These heuristics can include predispositional factors, such as ideological beliefs or value systems, and also short-term frames of reference provided by the media or other sources of information. Recent research suggests that 'religious filters' are an important heuristic for scientific issues in general, and nanotechnology in particular. A religious filter is more than a simple correlation between religiosity and attitudes toward science: it refers to a link between benefit perceptions and attitudes that varies depending on respondents' levels of religiosity. In surveys, seeing the benefits of nanotechnology is consistently linked to more positive attitudes about nanotechnology among less religious respondents, with this effect being significantly weaker for more religious respondents. For this study, we have combined public opinion surveys in the United States with Eurobarometer surveys about public attitudes toward nanotechnology in Europe to compare the influence of religious beliefs on attitudes towards nanotechnology in the United States and Europe. Our results show that respondents in the United States were significantly less likely to agree that nanotechnology is morally acceptable than respondents in many European countries. These moral views correlated directly with aggregate levels of religiosity in each country, even after controlling for national research productivity and measures of science performance for high-school students.

Patenting Nanotechnology in Europe: Making a Good Start? An Analysis of Issues in Law and Regulation

Nanotechnology is the technology that concerns itself with the smallest units of matter and promises manipulation of matter on the level of individual molecules. Strongly improved quality of many kinds of products will be the result. The patenting of nanotech inventions is well under way in Europe, but going down to the most elemental level raises new and important questions. It is e.g. not so clear how patenting at the nano level relates to the patenting of inventions that are im- or explicitly situated at the bigger micro- or macroscopic level? And fundamental questions can be asked: should matter at all be patentable at the most elemental level? This article seeks to give a first overview of questions of law and regulation concerning the patentability of inventions in the field of nanotechnology under the European Patent Convention.

Public perception of nanotechnology

While several studies on the public opinion of nanotechnology have pointed to a rather enthusiastic U.S. public, the public uptake of nanotechnology in Europe is more contained. The results of the Swiss publifocus on nanotechnology reveal a pragmatic attitude of citizens toward the emerging technologies, thus confirming what has been identified as a “balanced approach” in the NanoJury UK.

Nanotechnology in Europe: scientific trends and organizational dynamics

We give evidence on how closely different areas of research in the nanometre range are integrated and on what established and new networks and research programmes at EU level may contribute to the further development of the nanosciences. A Delphi study, participant observation, interviews and informal contacts form the basis of this empirical and sociological study. The analysis shows that the invention of scanning probe techniques and other nanotools is entering a variety of areas of research, which are largely unrelated. The EU networks and research programmes present in the selection environment stimulate the emergence of nanotechnology as one among several technologies which use nanotools, are based on nanometre-long structures and utilize properties which can only be made at a nanoscale.

欧米におけるナノテクノロジーの動向

欧米におけるナノテクノロジーの動向