A Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials (2012) / Chapter Skim
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5 Research Priorities and Resource Needs
5 Research Priorities and Resource Needs
Pages 143-161
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From page 143... ...
Research on ecosystem-level effects that addresses exposure or hazard scenarios that are underrepresented in the current portfolio of nanotechnologyrelated EHS research; for example, impacts on ecosystem processes and on organisms representing different phyla and environments. Chapter 3 reviewed what is known about the EHS aspects of nanomaterials in the context of the conceptual framework and identified critical research questions that remain unanswered, focusing on processes most likely to affect exposure and hazards related to engineered nanomaterials (ENMs)
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The research categories are Adaptive research and knowledge infrastructure for accelerating research progress and providing rapid feedback to advance research. Characterizing and quantifying the origins of nanomaterial releases.
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The committee describes the logical sequence of the research within each of the priority categories with recognition that timing will depend on the knowledge gained from previous research efforts. ADAPTIVE RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ACCELERATING RESEARCH PROGRESS AND PROVIDING RAPID FEEDBACK TO ADVANCE RESEARCH An adaptive knowledge infrastructure is essential for supporting and providing rapid feedback on integrative research.
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Short-term priority requiring immediate emphasis followed by a sustained effort: Produce and make available material libraries (characterized nanomaterials in commerce, reference materials, and standard materials) that have the structural definition and systematic variation needed for advancing key research (see Chapter 4)
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Establish and evolve an informatics framework that begins by federating and supporting existing data repositories and connecting them through shared or translatable ontologies. CHARACTERIZING AND QUANTIFYING THE ORIGINS OF NANOMATERIAL RELEASES Characterizing the quantity and nature of nanomaterials to which human populations and ecosystems are exposed is critical for evaluating the EHS risks posed by nanomaterials.
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o Model nanomaterial releases along the life cycle. Short-term activities address materials in commerce and in the environments that nanomaterials will enter along the value chain and lifecycle.
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PROCESSES AFFECTING BOTH EXPOSURE AND HAZARD Because nanoscale properties have a profound influence on biologic, physical, and chemical processes that control nanomaterial releases, transformations, and effects in various levels of biologic organization, from organisms to ecosystems, it is advantageous to assess exposure to and hazards of nanomaterials together. The conceptual framework for the EHS research strategy (Figure 21)
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From page 150... ...
Topics in this research category include the effects of particle surface modification on aggregation and nanoparticle bioavailability, reactivity, and toxicity potential; processes that affect nanomaterial transport across biologic or synthetic membranes; and the development of structure-activity relationships of nanomaterials with their transport, fate, and effects. For example, surface modification of zero-valent iron [Fe(0)
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From page 151... ...
Further development of a knowledge infrastructure that can describe and allow for the diversity and dynamics of ENM structure in relevant biologic and environmental media. Instrumentation to measure ENM properties in various matrices is needed to relate their properties to the potential for exposure and effects and to determine the types and extent of ENM transformations in environmental and biologic systems.
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In this priority category, research includes efforts to relate in vitro to in vivo observations, predicting such system-level effects as nutrient cycling, and at the organism level, assessing effects on the endocrine or developmental systems. This category also encompasses the need to develop a more rigorous, conceptual, and complex model of effects of exposure and potential effects along the ecologic food chain concomitantly with corresponding development of instrumentation and protocols for nanomaterial measurement, and detection and development of assays for isolating ENM effects and reactivity in complex media.
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The development of those approaches could be expedited by inclusion of standard reference nanomaterials in experimental testing designs, but such approaches must await the development of short-term data to support testing strategies to advance system-level understanding of the potential EHS effects of nanomaterials. Research in the four broad priority categories will address the goals of the research agenda articulated in Chapter 1 by generating scientific evidence that Provides for approaches to environmental and human health protection even as our knowledge of ENMs is expanding and the research strategy is evolving.
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RESOURCES FOR ADDRESSING RESEARCH PRIORITIES In addition to identifying the four research priority categories, the committee considered the resources needed to address its recommendations, consistent with its charge. In making these recommendations, the committee recognizes the current funding situation and the overall inadequacy of the funding available.
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In 2011, nanotechnology-related EHS funding showed a marked decrease; however, the President's FY 2012 budget request proposes $123.5 million for nanotechnology-related EHS R&D -- 5.8% of the total nanotechnology R&D budget and the highest annual budget to date (NSET 2011)
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The committee recognizes that such resource increases are not likely to be met by the budget requests of any one agency or institute but need to be garnered through a coordinated effort on the part of the nanomaterial community to leverage additional resources from public, private, and international initiatives to support critical cross-cutting research. These critical cross-cutting activities are encompassed within the research priority categories described above and would be supported by greater coordinated investment in nanotechnology-related EHS informatics, investment in
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From page 157... ...
To ensure the development and implementation of a strategic nanotechnology-related EHS R&D program that is proportionate to overall nanotechnology R&D funding, that is commensurate with nanotechnology's economic and societal importance, that addresses critical knowledge gaps, and that maximizes the beneficial influence of federal R&D investments, the committee offers the following resource recommendations: On the assumption that core nanotechnology-related EHS R&D funding by federal agencies remains at about $120 million per year over the next 5 years, over time, funded research should be aligned with strategic priorities identified here and in the National Nanotechnology Initiative nanotechnologyrelated EHS strategy. Any reduction in this total would be a setback to EHS research and slow progress in addressing the committee's priorities.
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158 Research Priorities and Resource Needs o Informatics: $5 million per year in new funding for the next 5 years should be used to support the development of robust infor matics systems and tools for managing and using information on the EHS effects of ENMs. The committee concluded that develop ing robust and responsive informatics systems for ENM EHS in formation was critical to guiding future strategic research, and translating research into actionable intelligence.
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[Pp. 172-174 in A Matter of Size: Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (2006)
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House of Representatives Committee on Science and Tech nology: The National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008, April 16, 2008 [online]
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and surface modification decrease the toxicity of nanosized zerovalent iron.
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