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Better guidance required on US EHS research
Published: Saturday 1 March 2008
In March 2008, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a Report to Congressional Requesters entitled Nanotechnology: Better Guidance Is Needed to Ensure Accurate Reporting of Federal Research Focused on Environmental, Health, and Safety Risks (GAO-08-402), which had been commission because of concerns about federal efforts to fund and prioritize EHS research; GAO was asked to detemine:
- the extent to which selected agencies conducted such research in fiscal year 2006;
- the reasonableness of the agencies’ and the NNI’s processes to identify and prioritize such federal research; and
- the effectiveness of the agencies’ and the NNI’s process to coordinate this research.
GAO reviewed quantitative and qualitative data from five federal agencies that provided 96 percent of fiscal year 2006 funding for EHS research.
The GAO’s main recommendation is for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which administers the multiagency National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), to provide better guidance to agencies regarding how to report research that is primarily focused on EHS risks.