Prioritization of Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials (2007)

The September 2006 NNI document EHS Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials, identified five broad categories of Federal environmental, health, and safety (EHS) research and information needs. It also defined 75 specific needs related to risk assessment and management of nanoscale materials and provided principles for prioritizing EHS research.

The interagency Nanotechnology Environmental and Health Implications (NEHI) Working Group solicited public comment on the prioritization principles and continued to assess the research needs. As a result, the Working Group refined the prioritization principles and reorganized – and in some cases revised slightly – the statement of the research needs and categories. The Working Group used the updated principles to identify five priorities within each of the five categories of EHS research and information needs. This document defines these 25 priorities along with the revised principles and the process used for prioritizing EHS research needs.