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The primary aims of the meeting were to report on work undertaken up to June 2009 and to review the work programme.
The following final draft reports were presented to the meeting:
“Nanotechnology: Impacts on Companies, Business Environments and Policy”
“Global Challenges: Water”
Following approval by the OECD Committee for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP), these reports will be made available on the web.
The activities in the work programme for 2009-2010 were discussed:
Plans for work on the statistical framework will be reviewed at the next WPN meeting (December 2009).
Public engagement case study work has begun in several countries in 2009, the final report being due in 2010. This project falls under the activity Monitoring and Benchmarking Nanotechnology Developments”.
A new project was proposed to deepen, in selected nanotechnology sub-areas, the work (2007-2008) on key challenges in the business environment. The proposal will be developed over the months following the meeting.
The work on clean water as a global challenge being complete, new project areas are being considered including sustainability, green innovation, food and health. The development of the new project(s) will draw on the experience of the OECD Conference on “Potential Environmental Benefits of nanotechnology: Fostering Safe Innovation-led Growth” which is a WPN conference jointly organised with the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials and taking place from July 15th to July 17th 2009 in Paris (see www.oecd.org/nanobenefits).
Final preparations for the Policy Roundtable on International Scientific Co-operation in Braga, Portugal (22-23 June 2009) were presented. An initial draft of the programme for the Policy Roundtable on Risk Governance in Nanotechnology (Vienna, Austria, September 25th 2009) was presented.
The sixth meeting of the WPN will be held 30 November-2 December 2009 in Paris.
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