Dr. Wannee Chinsirikul and Dr. Pavadee Aungkavattana, Executives of NANOTEC participated virtually in the 5th EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety which was organized in conjunction with the 19th ANF Summit Meeting (ANFoS2022) during 18-19 July 2022 at Hilton Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Hybrid Conference).
On 18 July 2022, National Nanotechnology Centre (NNC), Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysia hosted the 5th EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruslinda A. Rahim, Director of NNC and ANF Executive member. Dr. Wannee Chinsirikul, Executive Director of NANOTEC and President of Asia Nano Forum (ANF) was invited to deliver a welcome remark on behalf of Asia Nano Forum (ANF).
Dr. Pavadee Aungkavattana, Deputy Executive Director of NANOTEC was invited as a Keynote Lecture on INISS-nano to share information and experience on the topic of “Infrastructures across ASEAN to support Nanosafety (Thailand case)”. The objective of this event is to create exchanges and understanding between policy makers, researchers, and non-governmental organizations from Europe and Asia on the significance of nanosafety.
The EU-Asia Dialogue was initiated in 2017 with the effort of ANF working group on Standardization and Nanosafety and Risk Management in collaboration with the European NanoSafety Cluster (NSC). The aim of the EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety is to exchange information, knowledge, and experience, as well as sharing resources between the key players from Europe and Asia. The 1st EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety was held in Iran in November 2017. It is the mechanism to initiate and link the collaboration on Nanosafety between Europe and Asia and explore granting opportunities. Since the first meeting was very fruitful, the 2nd meeting and the 4th meeting were held in Austria in 2018 and 2020 respectively, whereas the 3rd meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2019.
On 19 July 2022 (morning session), ANF Workshop on Commercialization was organized by Dr. Rezal Khairi Ahmad, ANF Vice President and coordinator of the ANF Working Group on Commercialization. The objective of this workshop is to share experiences in business related to nanotechnology research. Dr. Paisan Khanchaitit, a Team Leader of Nanoneedle Research Team, Responsive Material and Nanosensor Research Group, NANOTEC, was invited as speaker to give a success story of “Microspike Technology for cosmeceuticals products and medical devices”. This research is scaled up to be the first NANOTEC’s start-up entrepreneur to produce the micro nanoneedles on fabrics with customizable features. Lots of Malaysian companies are interested on this technology.
On 19 July 2022 (afternoon session), Dr. Wannee Chinsirikul, ANF President, and Dr. Pavadee Aungkavattana, ANF Secretary, participated in the Annual General Meeting of the 19th Asia Nano Forum Summit Meeting (ANFoS2022). This meeting is an annual meeting where representatives from all 14 ANF member economies updated the nanotechnology development and discuss related issues such as policy, R&D, and commercialization.
Dr. Waluree Thongkam, Senior Technical Officer of Nano-Safety Alliance Section, NANOTEC, participated physically in Malaysia in this meeting as a representative of NANOTEC, to report the progress of ANF Nanosafety & Risk Management Working Group. The objective of this working group is to coordinate nanosafety activities in the region through the Asia Nano Safety network, including harmonization of nano safety training, safety-by-design approach to nanotechnology development and translational nano research to the marketplace. Also, to provide a coordinated response for community concerns and engagement on nanotechnology safety and risk management issues.
About Asia Nano forum (ANF):
Established in 2004 with six co-founding countries namely Japan, Thailand, Australia, Vietnam, India, and the United States. The ANF head office is located at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Singapore. There are currently 14 member organizations. Its mission is to promote responsible development of nanotechnology that educationally, socially, environmentally, and economically benefits each economy by fostering international network collaboration.