Talking About Nanotechnology

Mee W¹, Katz E², Lovel R² and Solomon F²*

1. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2. CSIRO Minerals, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Nanotechnology development, the development of biological, information, materials, manufacturing capabilities etc at the nanometre (10-9) scale, is an emerging science driven internationally by the availability of significant financial resources (eg $700 M in the United States).

CSIRO is an active participant and promoter of nanotechnology and other emerging sciences and has begun to explore public concerns through a series of public engagement processes including a regionally based workshop, interviews and a deliberative citizens’ panel.

The workshop was a good first step in public engagement in the area of nanotechnology research and provided valuable feedback on the responses and perspectives of a range of community representatives. It provided important insights into the challenges and opportunities facing research organisations in relation to its capacity to engage with community concerns and perceptions.

Following the workshop we identified five critical contexts: commercialisation, regulation, ethics, environment, and social impact that we explored through a series of interviews with a range of specialists. At the conclusion of the interviews we recruited members of the public to form a panel to deliberate (with the assistance of a range of experts) on issues associated with nanotechnology.

Finally, to transfer knowledge and learning back to our organisation we ran an in-house workshop of senior scientists that enabled deliberation of researchers on similar questions.

This paper outlines the engagement processes used in this research and reports on the outcomes. The paper concludes with a reflection on the engagement processes and suggests areas requiring further study.

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