NER: Scenario Analysis for Upstream Identification of Risks and Opportunities from Nanotechnology

这个纳米级探索性研究奖将研究使用场景分析上游识别纳米技术的风险和机会。 纳米技术在其生命周期中带来的高度不确定性，需要上游识别纳米技术的社会和环境影响以及它带来的机会的框架，以便监管不会阻碍技术发展。该项目采用情景分析方法，其中社会科学家和技术科学家使用道德想象力和专家启发与利益相关者谈判问题，以制定基于风险的方法来开发和监管纳米技术。具体而言，情景分析适用于：（1）了解社会需求如何引导纳米技术用于环境监测和修复;（2）估计新兴技术的潜在风险;（3）探索基于风险和机会的纳米技术监管模式。 这项研究的知识价值包括制定一个情景分析框架，通过纳入纳米材料的毒性、监管结构的综合观点、系统层面影响的考虑以及在技术开发中考虑更广泛的社会需求来确定风险并对其进行评级。 该项目更广泛的影响是使科学知情的贸易区能够制定确定纳米技术潜在风险和环境效益的方案。 博士学位一名学生和一名专门从事环境系统分析的MS学生将获得一年的支持，与教师顾问以及独立的政策专家咨询小组共同工作，以了解应用于纳米技术的紧迫社会需求和监管问题。

This Nanoscale Exploratory Research award will examine the use of scenario analysis for upstream identification of risks and opportunities from nanotechnology. The high degree of uncertainty that nanotechnology poses during its lifecycle, necessitates frameworks for upstream identification of both the social and environmental impacts of nanotechnology, as well as the opportunities it poses, so that regulation does not stymie technological development. This project uses a scenario analysis methodology wherein social scientists and technical scientists negotiate the issues with stakeholders using moral imagination and expert elicitation to develop a risk-based approach to the development and regulation of nanotechnology. Specifically, scenario analysis is applied to: (1) Understand how societal needs may guide nanotechnology for environmental monitoring and remediation; (2) Estimate potential risks from an emerging technology; and (3) Explore models for risk and opportunity-based regulation of nanotechnology. The intellectual merits of this research include the development of a scenario analysis framework to identify and rank risks by including toxicity of nanomaterials, an integrated view of the regulatory structure, a consideration of system-level impacts, and accounting for broader social needs within technology development. The broader impacts of the project the enabling of scientifically informed trading zones to develop scenarios for identifying potential risks and also environmental benefits of nanotechnology. A Ph.D. student and an MS student specializing in environmental systems analysis will be supported for a year to work jointly with faculty advisors, as well as with an independent advisory panel of policy experts, to understand the pressing societal needs and regulatory concerns as applied to nanotechnology.