On May 10, 2007, the European Commission (EC) announced the availability of the results of its April 16, 2007, workshop on intellectual property rights (IPR) in nanotechnology. The objective of the workshop was to identify specific IPR issues for nanotechnology and to discuss possible consequences for patent offices, policy makers, patent consultants, and the research community. Ongoing academic and political discussions have identified many aspects, such as the costs of...
Archives
On May 4, 2007, the European Commission (EC) released a document entitled Strategy for Communication Outreach in Nanotechnology, which is a working paper from the EC’s February 6, 2007, workshop. The paper includes recommendations for future European funding on appropriate communication and innovative approaches to engage the European civil society in a dialogue on nanotechnology, including: surveying the public; developing new models and tools for communication; developing the...
On April 11, 2007, the European Commission (EC) announced that the report prepared by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) regarding the appropriateness of the risk assessment methodology for assessing the risks of nanomaterials is available for comment. Comments are due May 23, 2007. EC states that the report “provides the Commission with a sound scientific approach on how to modify the Technical Guidance Documents of the EU...
On March 20, 2007, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) released a report entitled Nanotechnology and Life Cycle Assessment: A Systems Approach to Nanotechnology and the Environment, which summarizes the results of the October 2-3, 2006, workshop organized by PEN and the European Commission on life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a cradle-to-grave analysis of how a material affects ecosystems and human...