The unthinkable has happened!  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is poised to get $5 million in crisp new dollars for researching possible workplace risks arising from nanotechnology.  It may not sound like a big deal.  But believe me—it is…

Back in 2005, NIOSH spent $3 million on nanotechnology risk research—scraped together from various internal sources.  It wasn’t a lot, but it allowed the agency to begin chipping away at a growing problem—how to work safely with the increasingly unusual materials coming out of nanotechnology.  Since then, NIOSH has been doing an annual loaves and fish trick—pushing meager internal funds further than they had any right to go in the pursuit of safer workplaces.

But even with inspired leadership and a smart bunch of researchers, $3 million a year was never enough to cover all of the research needed to underpin safe nanotech workplaces.  Back in 2005, we didn’t know how to measure exposure to nanomaterials, how toxic the new materials being produced were, how to prevent exposure, or how to work with and dispose of the materials safely.  Despite some excellent research, we are still a long way from answering these questions—which makes things tough for the producers, users and regulators of nanotechnology-related products.

Of course, the burden for filling in the knowledge gaps doesn’t lie solely on NIOSH’s shoulders.  Other federal agencies are filling in some of the unknowns under the auspices of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  And collaborations with research partners around the world are helping leverage the limited funds that are available.

Nevertheless, NIOSH is the lead US agency when it comes to underpinning safe workplaces through sound research.  And so far it hasn’t had the resources necessary to do the job when it comes to nanotechnology.

Over the past five years, annual funding for nanotechnology risk research has increased within the agency—it was up to $7 million last year.  But this has always been achieved through redirecting internal funds.  Despite the US Government investing around $1.5 billion per year on nanotechnology research, not a drop of new money has gone NIOSH’s way.

Until now.  Maybe it’s the new administration.  Maybe people are eventually waking up to the fact that successful nanotechnology depends on safe workplaces.  Either way, NIOSH is scheduled to receive $5 million in new funding for nanotechnology risk research next year—bringing the total nanotech research budget to $12 million.

Of course, it isn’t enough to do everything that is necessary.  Even my lowest estimates suggest that the agency need an additional $10 million per year to make significant inroads into the research backlog here.

But it is a major step in the right direction.

That’s not the only good news though.  Browsing through the NNI’s Supplement to the President’s Budget for 2010 [PDF, 3.4MB], a number of agencies will be increasing spending on nanotechnology risk research next year.  Most significantly, the National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST) will be investing an additional $3 million, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) an additional $7 million.  Overall, the projected budget for nanotechnology risk research for 2010 is $88 million—$16 million up on this year.

This is great news.  But I do need to add a caveat.  The NNI figures have always tended to encompass research that is relevant to addressing safety concerns, but isn’t necessarily directly focused on the type of research that is needed (this discrepancy was highlighted most recently in a National Academies of Science report).  And so there is a chance that not every dollar in that $88 million will go directly to ensuring the safer use of nanotechnology-related products.

Nevertheless, I am cautiously optimistic that a larger proportion of the funding will be directly relevant to understanding and minimizing risks in 2010.   Funding increases for NIOSH, NIH, NIST and the US Environmental Protection Agency will all directly contribute to a better understanding of potential risks.  And a large chunk of National Science Foundation funding in this area is already tied up in two research centers specifically focused on environmental impacts.

There is still a long way to go if US government-supported research is to get us to where we need to be with developing safe nanotechnologies.  In addition to funding, there is still a need for increased stakeholder involvement in mapping out research directions and a stronger research strategy.

But it seems that under the new administration things are at least moving in the right direction.

And while an additional $5 million for NIOSH may seem a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things, it is a major step forward to protecting one of the more vulnerable groups when it comes to engineered nanomaterials—the people making and using the stuff.