On July 31, 2014, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) will hold a public webinar to provide a forum to answer questions related to the federal government’s “Progress Review on the Coordinated Implementation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Strategy.” According to the July 22, 2014, Federal Register notice, discussion will focus on the research activities undertaken by the National Nanotechnology Initiative...
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The National Toxicology Program (NTP) Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) published a Federal Register notice on June 19, 2014, requesting available data and information on devices and/or technologies currently used for identifying potential inhalation hazards. According to NICEATM, it will use submitted information “to determine the technical requirements for developing effective inhalation toxicity tools to assess potential chemical or...
On July 11, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that several biobased DOE research projects were recognized by R&D magazine as the most outstanding technology developments with promising commercial potential. According to the DOE notice, projects included in the awards were: * Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Tissue-Specific Cell-Wall Engineering for Biofuels and Biomaterials. This suite of precision genetic tools is expected to improve crops bred for production of...
July 17, 2014
OECD Publishes Report of Expert Meeting on Physical Chemical Properties of Manufactured Nanomaterials and Test Guidelines
On July 15, 2014, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) posted the July 2014 Report of the OECD Expert Meeting on the Physical Chemical Properties of Manufactured Nanomaterials and Test Guidelines. The Report presents the discussion and recommendations from the February 28-March 1, 2013, workshop on “Physico-chemical Properties of Manufactured Nanomaterials and Test Guidelines.” OECD notes that the workshop was organized “in close collaboration...
On June 25, 2014, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) posted Progress Review on the Coordinated Implementation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Strategy, which provides an overview of progress on the implementation and coordination of the 2011 NNI Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Research Strategy that was developed by the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee’s Nanotechnology Environmental and...
June 6, 2014
Georgia Tech Renames Institute Of Paper Science And Technology The Renewable Bioproducts Institute
Georgia Tech has announced that it is renaming its Institute of Paper Science and Technology the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI). According to the announcement, the school has committed to doing the following to further the Institute: * Recruit at least one new tenure track professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry with relevant bioproducts experience to join more than 40 Georgia Tech faculty now working with RBI. * Recruit a new tenure track professor...
On May 28, 2014, policy researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), the University of Virginia, and EMBO released a report on challenges faced by regulators with the increased use of more sophisticated synthetic biology technologies to engineer plants and microbes. According to the press release on the report, "[t]he authors conclude that while the United States governmental agencies tasked with oversight of products derived through synthetic biology have adequate legal...
April 11, 2014
EPA Awards Grant to Study the Life Cycle of Nanomaterials
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $5 million, four-year grant to investigators led by Arizona State University to study the life cycle of nanomaterials. According to EPA’s description of the award, the project involves an interdisciplinary team of chemists, toxicologists, scientists, engineers, and social scientists to evaluate the trade-offs between intended function of nanomaterials in products and risks to humans and the environment across their life...
March 26, 2014
NNI Publishes Supplement to President’s 2015 Budget
On March 25, 2014, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) published a supplement to President Obama’s 2015 budget request submitted to Congress on March 4, 2014. The supplement provides a description of the activities underway in 2013 and 2014 and planned for 2015 by the federal government agencies participating in the NNI, primarily from a programmatic and budgetary perspective. NNI states that it is based on the NNI Strategic Plan and reports actual investments...
March 20, 2014
America Competes Reauthorization Act Would Reauthorize NNI
On March 6, 2014, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Ranking Member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, introduced the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4159). The bill would establish, revise, and extend specified science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs, as well as education, research, and training programs. The bill would reauthorize the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) “to ensure the United States remains a leader in...