More than a Decade On: Mapping Today’s Regulatory and Policy Landscapes Following the Publication of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and Uncertainties

It is now more than a decade since the release of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering’s (RA/RAEng) seminal report on nanosciences and nanotechnologies. The report, for the first time, brought together the spectrum of scientific and societal issues underpinning the emergence of the technology. In articulating 21 recommendations, the RA/RAEng provided the United Kingdom Government—and others—with an agenda on how they could, and should, deal with the disparate aspects of the technology. The report provides a baseline to measure progress against. By focusing on the eight recommendations that dealt specifically with regulation and governance, I reflect on the extent, and nature, of this progress; identify key actors in shaping the evolving governance framework; and, importantly, distinguish areas where progress appears to have lagged.