The results of Januarys European workshop, “Research Needs on Nanoparticles has now been published. While the report is less of a policy statement than a collection of opinions, it does illustrate the breadth (and depth) of European efforts to get to grips with the potential downside of nanotechnologies.
As Europe is now gearing up for the seventh Framework Program (this is the program which funds EU research, but still creepily reminiscent in nature of the old Soviet five year plans) we can expect a number of such workshops making the case for more funding on [insert your pet research topic].
Given the speed at which technologies are accelerating and converging, lets hope the commission builds in lots of flexibility to allow Europe to take advantage of this, rather than setting research policies in stone until the next decade.