Nanotechnology Engagement Group (Involve)

The Nanotechnology Engagement Group (NEG) is a British organization funded by the government of the United Kingdom, and was created in summer 2005. Its purpose is to coordinate activities to engage the social and ethical issues arising from the development and application of nanotechnology. The NEG is run by the Involve Foundation, which is a British think tank founded in 2004. Richard Wilson became its first director. The purpose of the Involve Foundation was to identify new forms of public participation, such as blogging, e-mails, or other forums to strengthen democracy in Britain and around the world. The Involve Foundation is headquartered in central London; Geoff Mulgan is the chair of its governing board. Some members on the Involve board are from Harvard University, Ipsos MORI, and the New Economic Foundation.

The organizational structure of the Involve Foundation is nonhierarchical. The Foundation's work is organized by areas of advocacy, neocritical thinking, better practices, and networking. Advocacy is defined as pushing an agenda of citizen empowerment. Neocritical thinking is new thinking that aims to improve understanding of what works. Better practices appears to be a business term for seeking best practices, but it really involves seeking out supporting institutions and citizens. Networking seeks to organize agents of influence and others into a web of advocacy.

Ipsos MORI is the second largest polling organization in Great Britain. It was founded by Robert Worcester in 1969 as the Market & Opinion Research International (MORI) Company. In October 2005, MORI merged with Ipsos, which is located in France where it was founded in the 1970s. The company has a research organization (Social Research Institute), which is frequently employed by the British government. It did extensive polling research of the Labour Party government between 1997 and 2006. It works on cutting-edge social policy that can be addressed by public opinion polling. Harvard University is world famous as an institution of higher learning. The learned members of its board of NEG are qualified to make decisions about the development of nanoscience.

The New Economic Foundation (NEF) also has members on the board of NEG. NEF is an “independent” British think-tank. Its ideological stance in the areas of economics and the environment is statist. It was founded in 1986, in opposition to the G8 by members of the Other Economic Summit. It became prominent between 1992 and 2006 though the leadership of Ed Mayo, who is an activist in economics, consumer issues, and community issues. With assistance from the National Health Service Trust (NHS Trust), which is a semi-independent agency of the British NSH, it has pushed an agenda that is more consumer oriented, or in British political terms, more patient service oriented. Its interest in the development of nanotechnology is in keeping with its aim to construct a new society based upon new economics and an environment that it claims will be focused on people.

NEG has conducted several studies on public opinion about nanotechnology in the light of genetically modified crops (GM) and mad cow disease (bovine spon-giform encephalopathy. Both British and continental public opinion proved to be suspicious of nanotechnology when a question was posed to the public: “what are the uses and limits of public engagement on emerging science and technology?” In other words, the question is whether or not public dialogue would aid acceptance of nanotechnology when it enters widespread usage.

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