About Nanotechnology Partnerships and Collaborations

Overview

Grants and funding opportunities may be available through the Office of Extramural Programs.

Research laboratories, producers and manufacturers working with engineered nanomaterials (1 to 100 nm) who are interested in participating in a cost-free, on-site assessment can visit the Field Studies Effort webpage for more information.

NIOSH has partnerships and collaborations with countries, academia, industry, labor, other government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. These collaborations have provided expertise and resources that are critical for successfully completing research and developing and disseminating health and safety information on engineered nanoparticles.

Partnerships & Collaborations

Expert Groups

Safety and Health Organizations and Expert Groups

• American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) - Participating on working group activities and information exchange and dissemination for nanoparticle characterization and control
• American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH)
• American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE)
• Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences - Modifying software for use in lung dosimetry modeling
• Health Physics Society (HPS) - Participating in working group activities and information exchange and dissemination for nanoparticle characterization and control
• Collaborating on the respirator filter media work being conducted at the University of Minnesota to assess the filtration efficiency against nanoparticles
• International Alliance for Nanotoxicology Harmonization (IAHN) - Establishing protocols for reproducible toxicological testing of nanomaterials in both cell cultures and animals
• The initiative on Minimum Information Needed for Characterization of Nanomaterials (MINChar) - Encouraging adoption of a minimum set of physical and chemical material characterization parameters in nanotoxicology studies
• Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh, Scotland - Revising rat lung dosimetry models to account for particle size-specific clearance and retention.
• National Safety Council (NSC)

Agencies

Federal and Other Government Agencies

NIOSH is working in partnership with other government agencies primarily through participation in the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, a federal research and development program established to coordinate the multiagency efforts in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. This initiative is managed within the framework of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). NIOSH is a member of the NTSC’s Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee (NSET). Within that subcommittee, NIOSH co-chairs, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the interagency Nanotechnology, Environmental and Health Implications (NEHI) Working Group.

• Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
• Department of Energy (DOE)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauve en Sante et en Securite du Travail (IRSST) - Exchanging information on approaches to safe nanotechnology
• International Labour Organization (ILO) - Developing information on nanotechnology for a revised edition of the Encylopaedia of Occupaitonal Health and Safety
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) - Developing international standards for terminology, characterization, and safety practices for nanotechnology
• Karolinska Institute - Evaluating the effect of nanomaterials on immune cells
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - Evaluating the toxicity of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/ National Institute of Health and the Department of Defense on nanotoxicology
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - Evaluating the toxicity of nanoparticles and developing nanoscale reference materials
• Through active participation in NNI's strategic and budget planning processes, and coordination of research into occupational safety and health of nanotechnology with other government agencies
• National Toxicology Program - Participating in the conduct of field assessments and toxicological research
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Evaluating the pulmonary toxicity of nanoparticles
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) - Evaluating the effectiveness of workplace control measures
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - Collaborating on exposure measurement and exposure mitigation
• U.S. Air Force
• U.S. Army
• U.S. Department of Agriculture - Collaborating with Forest Products Laboratory on exposure assessment and toxicology of nanocellulose
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Exchanging information on emerging application and health and safety issues for nanotechnology in the nuclear arena
• World Health Organization (WHO)

Companies

Nanotechnology Companies

• Altair Nano - Understanding and improving the control of ultrafine metal oxides and engineered nanomaterials
• DuPont and the Nanoparticle Occupational Safety and Health industry consortium - On issues related to the measurement of nanoparticles and the efficiency of filtration materials for engineered nanoparticles
• IBM - Evaluating the bioactivity of silicon nanowires
• Luna Nano Works - Understanding and improving the control of fullerenes and other engineered nanoparticles
• Mitsui Co. Inc. - Evaluating the bioactivity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs).
• NanoMech LLC - Collaborating on a proposed EPA phase I SBIR project related to containment of airborne nanoparticles.
• QD Vision - Understanding and improving the control of quantum dots.

Universities

• The Ohio State University - Evaluating workplaces, controls, and practices in the nanocomposites industry
• University of Cincinnati - Translating nanotechnology research into occupational and environmental health and safety activities
• University of Dayton Research Institute - Understanding and improving the control of carbon nanotubes
• University of Iowa - Measuring airborne concentrations of ultrafine particles
• University of Nevada at Reno (with Altair Nano) - Understanding and improving the control of ultrafine metal oxides and engineered nanomaterials
• University of Massachusetts at Lowell - Collaborating on the development of good practices for handling nanomaterials in research laboratories and developing exposure assessment methods
• University of Minnesota - Measuring airborne concentrations of ultrafine particles
• University of Montana - Evaluating the toxicity of nanowires
• University of Montreal - Assessing and characterizing nanoparticles in the workplace
• University of Pittsburgh - Evaluating the toxicity of nanomaterials
• University of Rochester - Measuring the ability of nanoparticles to generate radical species
• University of Wisconsin, Madison - Developing exposure assessment strategies and characterizing nanoparticles in friction stir welding and micromachining
• Virginia Tech University - Understanding and improving the control of fullerenes and other engineered nanoparticles
• West Virginia University Nanotechnology Center - Evaluating the toxicity of metal oxide nanowires
• West Virginia University Medical School - Evaluating the effects of pulmonary exposure to nanoparticles, including the influence of exposure to titanium dioxide (TiO2) on systemic microvascular function