. Fostering regional stakeholder engagement in ethical risk governance of nanomaterials.

In the EU-funded project RiskGONE (https://riskgone.eu/), we are developing and testing online tools for risk governance, to support dialogue in a newly established nano risk governance council. This toolset includes an integrated system for performing an ethical impact assessment (EIA) [1], based on a CEN Workshop Agreement [2]. The EIA procedure, explained in the methodology, incorporates targeted stakeholder engagement during the identification and evaluation of ethical impacts of a nanomaterial or nanoproduct, and in making recommendations for remedial actions. The EIA tools can also be used to support ethical impact assessment of regional stakeholders. We illustrate how this could be done in a case study of the use of nanomaterials in wastewater remediation in a developing country. Policy implications are that the EIA procedure is useful for identifying ethical issues and engaging stakeholders in their evaluation and in suggesting recommendations.

[1] RiskGONE D3.6 Draft guidelines on Identification of regulatory and ethical risk thresholds. RiskGONE project, December 2020

[2] CEN, CWA 17145-2:2017 (E) Ethics assessment for research and innovation - Part 2: Ethical impact assessment framework. CEN, Brussels, June 2017