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Join the debate
Our aim with Nano&me is to provide balanced, easy to understand information about nanotechnology and be the hub of debate for everyone to discuss the important issues which arise from its use. Visit the site and let us know what you think…. www.nanoandme.org
If you would like to link to the site or discuss partnering with us to use the site as part of your own public involvement projects contact Hilary Sutcliffe on [email protected]
We apologise that some of the links on the site may not work. The UK government gave us a grant for this pilot site. We are currently fundraising to bring the site up to date and create the hub for debate that we think is so important.
Please contact [email protected] if you can help us!
Events
Events
December 13th 2010
Emerging Technologies Governance Brainstorm
The applications of science and technology are becoming more complex, more disruptive and global in their reach and impact. There is promise of huge economic and social benefit from these emerging technologies, but at the same time there are real uncertainties about their social impact, efficacy & safety.
As global power shifts alter the economic landscape and the nature and pace of innovation appears to step up a few gears, there is real concern about the governance of such technologies.
MATTER convened this brainstorm to explore with key stakeholders possible responses both UK and internationally.
Here is information about the meeting, its Agenda and attendees.
June 4th 2010
Corporate responsibility and emerging technologies.
On June 4th 2010 we hosted the first major conference in the UK focusing on a new agenda for corporate responsibility – the social and ethical dilemmas involved in the use of emerging technologies, looking at company use of nanotechnologies as a case study.
Here is the conference programme and the speeches are available below:
- Nanotechnologies and their markets
- Science, Trust & Corporate Responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility and the UK Nanotech Industry
- CSR and Emerging Technologies: Approaches to Responsible Nanotechnology
- Nanomaterials and Regulation
- Emerging Technologies and Litigation Risk
- Nanotechnologies and Insurance
- Public engagement & consumer expectation of new technologies
- CSR, Nano and Emerging Tech – How can companies respond?
Nanotechnologies are currently used in hundreds of products in the UK and are likely to have a big impact in sectors ranging from cosmetics to automotive, food to energy, textiles to computing – and wider still.
The governance, health, safety, environmental and reputational issues associated with their use are evolving very quickly. This conference explored some of the key areas that companies need to consider when using new technologies from the legal, insurance and CSR perspectives as well as to reflect on what companies are doing already to mitigate the risks and grasp the opportunities.
This was a joint conference from MATTER and the ESRC Centre for Business, Relationships, Sustainability and Society (BRASS) at Cardiff University and kindly organised and hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer at their offices in the City of London at 65 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1HS.
To find out more about these issues or the conference, please contact Hilary Sutcliffe on [email protected]
April 19th 2010
Nanotechnology issues for investors
This event explored the issues around nanotechnologies for investors and is a joint initiative with UKSIF, (the Sustainable Investment and Finance Association). See our blog for further details.
9th February 2010
Stakeholder Reflections on the House of Lords Nano & Food report
One month after the House of Lords published their Nano and Food report in January 2010, MATTER (then Responsible Nano Forum) convened a meeting of stakeholders to respond to the report. Their responses were also fed back to the House of Lords Committee at a personal meeting with Lord Krebs.
Here is the Agenda, the list of attendees and the notes of that meeting.
The Walking with Stakeholders project and the MATTER Business Group were created in response to this meeting.
6th March 2009
Nanotechnologies and Food Stakeholder meeting
In February 2009, just prior to the announcement of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry into Nanotechnologies and Food, MATTER (then Responsible Nano Forum) organised a meeting of stakeholders to explore the issues of Nanotechnologies and Food (scheduled for February 6th, but postponed to March 4th because of snow).
We consulted many key stakeholders in the area of Nano and Food and prepared a Nano and Food Issues Paper which summarised stakeholder concerns. This was used as a stimulus for the stakeholder meeting.
A Task List of those issues which stakeholders felt were a priority was created as an output of the meeting.