One of the frequent demands of NGOs, such as Friends of the Earth, is that the public should have a role in the development of regulations and government policies toward nanotechnology.
The UK has taken this issue seriously and has devised a way for the public to participate in developing regulations and policy.
Last week, Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and Chair of the Ministerial Group on Nanotechnologies, announced the opening of a website where everyone from academics to CEOs and the general public can file comments on five themes and, more generally, on nanotechnology’s role in the future of British industry.
The comments that will be entered on the website will be part of a new strategy on nanotechnology that the British government is scheduled to release in February 2010. That might change though. As anyone who has been following politics in the UK lately is aware, Gordon Brown’s Labour government will need to call an election no later than June of 2010 and current olling is showing that the Tories will probably will that election. Whether they retain any schemes created by the current government or create new ones is unknown at this point.
To see the website and take a tour of it, please look here.
