Originally published in The Nano Newswire

On October 20, 2011, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) released its 2011 Environmental, Health and Safety Research Strategy (the "Strategy"), and held a webinar to discuss the development of the Strategy and its main areas of focus. The Strategy is a comprehensive approach to ensuring the safe, effective, and responsible development and use of nanotechnology.

The Strategy provides an integrated research framework to guide all Federal agencies participating in the NNI. The Strategy identifies six core categories of research that together can contribute to the responsible development of nanotechnology: (1) Nanomaterial Measurement Infrastructure, (2) Human Exposure Assessment, (3) Human Health, (4) Environment, (5) Risk Assessment and Risk Management, and (6) Informatics and Modeling.

NNI was established in 2001 to coordinate Federal nanotechnology research and development across approximately 25 federal agencies. The 2012 Federal Budget provides $2.1 billion for the NNI, reflecting steady growth in the NNI investment. The cumulative NNI investment since fiscal year 2001, including the 2012 request, now totals over $16.5 billion. Cumulative investments in nanotechnology-related environmental, health, and safety research since 2005 now total nearly $575 million.

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