On February 17 2011, the EPA, in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), announced the awarding of $12 million ($5.5 million from the EPA, $500,000 from CPSC, and $6 million from NERC) to three consortia to fund research aimed at providing a greater understanding of potential risks to human health and the environment posed by engineered nanomaterials and their increasing use in a wider variety of products.

The three consortia, the "Consortium for Manufactured Nanomaterial Bioavailability and Environmental Exposure", "Risk Assessment for Manufctured Nanoparticles Used in Consumer Products (RAMNUC)", and "The Transatlantic Initiative for Technology and the Environment", are composed of leading US and UK Universities and research centers, such as Duke University, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Lancaster University. NERC’s $6 million is limited to participating universities and research centers in the UK.  The table below provides more information.

#   

Identifier

Abstract

Principal Investigator

Institution

Grant Representative

Grant Amount

Project Period

RFA

1

R834575
Grant

Consortium for Manufactured Nanomaterial Bioavailability & Environmental Exposure

Colvin, Vicki L.
Chipman, Kevin
Fernandes, Teresa
Klaine, Stephen J.
Lead, Jamie
Luoma, Sam
Stone, Vicki
Tyler, Charles
Valsami-Jones, Eva
Viant, Mark
 

Rice University,Clemson University,Edinburgh Napier University,Natural History Museum (London),University of Birmingham,University of California – Davis,University of Exeter

Lasat, Mitch
 

$2,000,000  

August 2010 –
August 2013  

Environmental Behavior, Bioavailability and Effects of Manufactured Nanomaterials – Joint US – UK Research Program (2009)  

2

R834693
Grant

Risk Assessment for Manufactured Nanoparticles Used in Consumer Products (RAMNUC)

Zhang, Junfeng
Chung, Kian Fan
Di Giulio, Richard T.
Garfunkel, Eric
Georgopoulos, Panos G.
Isukapalli, Sastry S.
Kipen, Howard
Lee, Ki-Bum
Lioy, Paul J.
Mainelis, Gediminas
Porter, Alexandra
Ryan, Mary P.
Schwander, Stephan K.
Tetley, Teresa D
 

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey,Duke University,Imperial College

Lasat, Mitch
 

$1,999,995  

July 2010 –
June 2014  

Environmental Behavior, Bioavailability and Effects of Manufactured Nanomaterials – Joint US – UK Research Program (2009)  

3

R834574
Grant

Transatlantic Initiative for Nanotechnology and the Environment

Bertsch, Paul M.
Casman, Elizabeth
Dorey, Robert
Harris, J.
Jefferson, Bruce
Kabengi, Nadine
Liu, J.
Lofts, Steve
Lowry, Gregory V.
McGrath, Steve
McNear, David H.
Neal, Andy
Ritz, Karl
Rocks, Sophie
Spurgeon, David
Svendsen, Claus
Tsyusko, Olga V.
Unrine, Jason M.
Wiesner, Mark R.
Zhang, Hao
 

University of Kentucky,Carnegie Mellon University,Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,Cranfield University,Duke University,Lancaster University,Rothamsted Research

Lasat, Mitch
 

$2,000,000  

May 2010 –
April 2014  

Environmental Behavior, Bioavailability and Effects of Manufactured Nanomaterials – Joint US – UK Research Program (2009)  

The results of the grant supported research "will help researchers determine whether certain nanomaterials can leach out of products . . . when they are used or disposed of and whether they could become toxic to people and the environment. The results could also be used by nanoindustries to create better and safer products.