NANOTEC delegates led by Dr. Wannee Chinsirikul, Executives Director, Dr. Pavadee Aungkavattana, Deputy Executives Director, and Dr. Waluree Thongkam, Senior Technical Officer of Nano-Safety Alliance Section were invited as speakers to attend the 6th EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety. The event was organized in conjunction with the German NanoDialogue, a stakeholder dialogue on nanotechnologies during 21 – 23 June 2023 at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany.
On 21 June 2023, the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) and BioNanoNet Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (BNN) organized the 6th EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety entitled “The role of characterisation and how it is addressed in International Network Initiative on Safe and Sustainable Nanotechnology (INISS-nano)”. Dr. Wannee Chinsirikul was invited to give a welcome address at the opening conference and as a keynote speaker on behalf of President of Asia Nano Forum (ANF) and NANTOEC. Her talk entitles “Characterization Research Efforts in Asian Countries” which described ANF activities and capabilities on characterization among ANF economy members including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand.
The break-out discussion is also the highlight of the session where participants are encouraged to give an effective brainstorming. Dr. Pavadee Aungkavattana was invited to participate in the break-out session of “Characterization Facilities and Infrastructures” which was initiated by INISS-nano. This network focuses on the collaboration in different fields pertaining to nanotechnology research in general and nano-safety research in particular. This session have discussed in the topic of existing infrastructure in Asia and Europe, the FAIR data concept, and sharing data on nanomaterials such as specific materials e.g., TiO2.
In addition, Dr. Waluree Thongkam was invited as a chair of the break-out session of “Societal and Ethical Considerations – Policy Framework for Characterization”. In this session, Dr. Waluree shared her idea on the safety and sustainability of nanomaterials and advanced materials. The result of the discussion is that there will be collaboration work between Pillar 1 “Characterization Items in Standardization” and Pillar 4 “Societal and Ethical Considerations – Policy Framework for Characterization” of INISS-nano and the webinar between EU and ANF will be planned and hosted by NANOTEC, Thailand in
the future. In addition, they discussed that the key for driving the societal and ethical consideration on policy framework for characterization are language barrier solution,
two-way communication and mutual learning.
Apart from the 6th EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety, NANOTEC delegates participated in the International Conference on the topic of “How the world deals with materials on the nanoscale – responsible use and challenges” which was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) in cooperation with OECD during 22-23 June 2023. This is the final event of the German NanoDialogue, a stakeholder dialogue on nanotechnologies. This conference gave valuable insights into the experiences and learnings from the German NanoDialogue, which has been going on for more than 16 years. Stakeholders from industry, academia, civil society organizations, and government authorities summarized, concluded, and shared their views. Additionally, stakeholders from all over the world presented how they approached challenges of the sustainable use of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies via legislation, standards, private initiatives, and research, such as in the medical area.
About the EU-Asia Dialogue:
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, the 3rd meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2019, whereas the 5th meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Hybrid meeting).