Nanotechnologies - Previous Areas of Research
An Examination of the Nature and Application among the Nanotechnologies Industry of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Context of Safeguarding the Environment and Human Health
The aim of this research is to assess the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a voluntary and self-regulatory approach by industry itself to tackle these potential risks. The project, seeks to assess the impact of the nature and application of CSR as a tool for the nanotechnologies industry to address some of the associated environmental and human health risks. The main objective of the project is to evaluate what motivates or inhibits industry to adopt responsible practices by applying a societal approach to risk assessment and risk management based on CSR principles.
Nanotechnology/Ethics and Politics of Uncertainty
This research focuses on the ethics of risk/uncertainty by developing commentary on some key ethical issues surrounding uncertainty. It considers two elements: a) the scientific and commercial development of nanotechnologies and b) the regulatory view of nanotech in different regulatory regimes. The research approach considers how the ethical/conceptual level and the regulatory/legal level mutually inform one another.
Overview of Regulatory Framework a report for the DTI (now DBERR)
In 2006, BRASS was appointed by the Office of Science & Innovation (OSI) to conduct provide an analysis of the potential gaps in the regulation of the development, manufacture, supply, use and end of life of free engineered nanoparticles. The project considered current and future foreseeable applications of nanomaterials and mapped these applications against existing regulatory frameworks that might govern the lifecycle of these materials. The assessed regulations serve a number of purposes including: controls on marketing; health and safety, consumer and environmental protection; and waste regulation. 60 separate pieces of regulation were subjected to careful legal scrutiny of their capacity to fulfil basic risk governance functions, which included
Key research areas:
legislative frameworks, regulatory theory, regulation of risk, sociology of risk and uncertainty, the role of the precautionary principle
