Manchester International Workshop on Nanotechnology, Society

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CNS-ASU and Nano-in-Society in the USA

• Manchester International Workshop on
  Nanotechnology, Society Policy
• Manchester, UK and Tempe, AZ
• 10 September 2008
• David H. Guston

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The U.S. 21st Century Nanotechnology RD Act of
2003 (PL 108-153)

• Sec 2(b)(10)
• Establish societal implications research program
• Require NSECs address societal implications
• Integrate societal concerns with nano RD for
  benefit of all
• Provide for public input
• (largely staff driven provisions)

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Nano-Politics, INNI Reauthorization

• National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act
  of 2008 (HR 5940)
• Passed House (407-6), H Rpt 110-682 Referred to
  Senate
• FY08 NNI budget 1.5B (on top of 7B over
  previous seven years)
• Priorities
• Strategic plan for NNI
• EHS (more planning, not necessarily more funding)
• Nanomanufacturing and Commercialization (inc.
  green nanomanufacturing)
• Nanoeducation (expand beyond NSF)
• Research in areas of national importance
  (competitiveness other important social
  benefits)
• Provisions for more attention to societal aspects
• All nanoeducation should include EHS and other
  societal information
• Designation of OSTP AD as Coordinator for
  Societal Dimensions (esp. EHS)
• Development of public database to catalog
  projects in SD by subcategory
• Report reminds NNCO about integration and
  engagement from 2003 Act

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NSFs Network for Nanotechnology in Society

• NSEC/Center for Nanotechnology in Society at
  Arizona State University
• 6.2 million (Oct 2005 Sept 2010)
• NCEC/Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UC
  Santa Barbara
• 5 million
• Projects
• Harvard/UCLA
• (1.7 million)
• University of South Carolina
• (1.4 million)

Originally a 13 million RFP for a single center,
but NSF decided to split the pot and create an
unfunded network
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NSEC/CNS-ASU Network

• Arizona State University
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Georgia Tech
• North Carolina State University
• Rutgers University
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• University of Georgia

CNS-ASU involves the activities of more than 80
individuals at seven major collaborating
institutions, as well as other collaborators,
partners, and consultants.
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CNS-ASU and its Mission

• CNS-ASU is an NSEC dedicated to
• Research the societal aspects of
  nanotechnologies
• Train a community of scholars with new insights
  into the societal dimensions of NSE
• Engage various publics and NSE researchers in
  dialogues about the goals and implications of
  NSE and
• Partner with NSE laboratories to introduce
  greater reflexiveness in the RD process.
• By reflexiveness we mean a capacity for social
  learning by individuals, groups, institutions,
  and publics in the NSE enterprise narrowly and
  society more broadly that expands the domain of
  and informs the available choices in decision
  making about nanotechnologies.

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Anticipatory Governance

• CNS-ASU intends these activities to begin to
  allow the anticipatory governance of
  nanotechnologies, that is, the broad-based
  capacity extending through-out society that can
  act on a variety of inputs to manage emerging
  nanotechnologies while such management is still
  possible.
• In the design of the Centers programs,
  anticipatory governance is a product of research
  in four programs of real-time technology
  assessment (RTTA 1-4) and two thematic research
  clusters (TRC 12), as well as highly integrated
  education, training and outreach activities.

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CNS-ASU Research Programs

• Real-time Technology Assessment (Guston
  Sarewitz 2002)
• RTTA 1 Research and Innovation Systems
  Assessment (RISA)
• RTTA 2 Public Opinion and Values (POV)
• RTTA 3 Deliberation and Participation (DP)
• RTTA 4 Reflexivity Assessment and Evaluation
  (RAE)
• Thematic Research Clusters
• TRC 1 Equity and Responsibility (ER)
• TRC 2 Human Identity, Enhancement Biology
  (HIEB)

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Strategic Research Vision Anticipatory Governance

• Barben, Fisher, Selin Guston. 2008.
  Anticipatory Governance of Nanotechnology
  Foresight, Engagement and Integration. Pp.
  979-1000 in Hackett, Amsterdamska, Lynch and
  Wajcman, eds., The Handbook of Science and
  Technology Studies (Cambridge MIT Press).
• Guston. 2008. Innovation Policy Not Just a
  Jumbo Shrimp. Nature (21 Aug)940-41.
• Foresight/Anticipation
• Engagement
• Integration
• Ensemble-ization (acting as a center)

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Foresight/Anticipation

• RTTA 3/1 Scenario Development
• NanoFutures site
• Doc-in-the-box workshop
• RTTA 3/2 InnovationSpace
• Prospective nano-products
• RTTA 1/1 Research and Innovation Systems
  Assessment
• Empirical basis to GPT
• Trend analysis
• RTTA 1/3 Workforce Assessment
• Nano-labor market
• RTTA 2 Public Opinion and Values
• Expectations of public and NSE researchers

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Engagement

• RTTA 3/4 NCTF ( TRC 2)
• Six deliberative sites
• RTTA 3/1 Scenario Development
• Wiki interaction
• TRC 1 Equity and Responsibility
• Nano Religion workshop
• Science Cafés
• 50 per at AZ SC
• NISE Net interactions
• NanoDays, white paper

February, 2008 Science Cafe
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Integration

• RTTA 3/1 Scenario Development
• Vetting and other workshops
• RTTA 4 Photon Project
• Lab study, workshop
• RTTA 4 Tubes in the Desert
• Lab study (workshops planned)
• Training/Education
• PhD
• DC Summer Session
• International Perspectives on Nano Society
• Learning Community
• InnovationSpace
• Science Cafés

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Ensemble-ization

• RTTA 3/4 National Citizens Technology Forum
• Uses scenes from RTTA 3/1
• Uses expertise from across CNS
• Pre/post-test uses input from TRCs
• Combines data w/ RTTA 2/1
• Provides data to TRCs
• Pre/post-test data
• Background document

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Ensemble-ization

• TRC 2 and End-to-End Assessment
• Begins w/ TRC 2 HIEB expertise
• Draws on RTTA 1/1 bibliometrics
• Draws on RTTA 2/2 media
• Provides pre/post-test expertise for RTTA 3/4
  NCTF
• Analyzes results of pre/post-test and other NCTF
  data
• Provides expertise for RTTA 2/1 survey
• Related course in Sp 08 Fall Spring 08-09
• Theme for RTTA 3/2 InnovationSpace and Science
  Cafes

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Ensemble-ization

• Cohort of post-docs/junior faculty
• Barben, Fisher, Selin Guston, STS Handbook
  chapter
• Fisher, Selin Wetmore, Yearbook of
  Nanotechnology in Society volume 1 editors
• Miller, Guston, Barben, Wetmore, Selin, and
  Fisher, Nanotechnology Society Ideas
• Wetmore, Bennett Conz STSO, DCSS
• Bennett, Fisher Conz IPNS
• Selin, Fisher, Conz, Bennett SD, Tubes, Photon

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Outputs Publications

• Highlights
• Barben et al. Handbook chapter
• Scheufele et al. Nature Nanotechnology
• Youtie et al. J Technology Transfer
• Robert, Nanotechnology and Society chapter
• Porter, et al. J Nanoparticle Research
• Fisher, NanoEthics
• Selin, Science Engineering Ethics
• Guston, Nature
• Summary to date (published/in press/under
  review/in preparation)
• Six books
• Twenty-seven PR journal articles
• Eleven trade/other journal articles
• Sixteen book chapters
• gt 150 presentations

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Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society, Volume 1
Presenting Futures
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Outcomes Networking

• Memoranda of Understanding
• DOE/Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
• Training sessions, curricular material
• Nano-scale Informal Science Education Network
  (NISE Net)
• Expertise-sharing, NanoDays, white paper
• National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
  (NNIN)
• Training PPT/video http//nnin.org/nnin_ethicstra
  ining.html
• Arizona Nanotechnology Cluster (AZNano)
• Panel at annual meeting, ongoing lectures, essay
  contest

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Outcomes Student Research Training

• Twenty-one student theses, eleven in last year
• Undergraduate honors theses
• Nano religion
• Nano the visually impaired
• InnovationSpace
• Fulbright
• Masters theses RTTA 3/3 CriticalCorps (nano
  design)
• Doctoral theses
• Influence of STS ideas in RD policy, comparative
  US-UK
• PhD on 1000 genome
• International doctoral student visitors (1
  completed, 3 in progress to date)

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Outcomes Impact of Ideas

• RTTA 1
• ObservatoryNano
• OSTP/NNCO
• RTTA 2
• Significant media coverage
• RTTA 3
• Deliberation w/ NanoFutures
• Invention Disclosures
• RTTA 4
• Changes among collaborating NSE researchers
• Knowledge/Identity/Practice
• Research agenda/problem choice
• Public value steering (?)

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Challenges (and Correctives)

• Reflexivity (on our part)
• International visitors/travel
• Visioning Workshop
• Internal Social Network Analysis
• Integration (more than a few anecdotes?)
• STIR proposal
• Scenario Development/NanoFutures
• Plausibility project
• Funding/Motivation/Expertise of Participants
• Commitment to coherent agenda/vision of nano as
  case of ET
• New HSDST PhD program
• Analysis of Data Generated (surveys and NCTF)
• Collaborative opportunities

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Nano-Politics, IINo New NanoEthics?

• Small but seemingly burgeoning literature asking,
  Is it appropriate to have a nano-ethics?
• No distinctive ethical questions
• Inappropriate to parse ethics by technical field
• Nano is indistinct (as scale rather than system
  or field)
• Cannot have ethics of something that does not
  exist yet
• But
• Ethical questions/answers dependent on context,
  and nano is different contextually from other
  emerging technologies
• Ethics by technical field necessary for not just
  contextuality but integration
• Nano is becoming more coherent set of fields of
  practice that are joined by common aspirations
• While prediction is impossible, anticipation is
  not

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Find Out More About CNS-ASU

• Web address
• http//cns.asu.edu
• CNS-ASU and its research, education and outreach
  activities are supported by the National Science
  Foundation under cooperative agreement 0531194.
  Any opinions, findings and conclusions are those
  of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
  views of the National Science Foundation.