This report describes the evaluation of the outcomes of the online citizen consultation.
During summer 2019, nearly 900 participants from five European countries answered GoNano online questionnaire, which aimed to find out more about people´s understanding of nanotechnology and its application areas in Food, Energy and Health. The conclusion of the report was that although respondents, in general, tend to perceive nanotechnology in a positive way, they hold some safety concerns connected to food and health applications. This is especially stressed by the concerns that were expressed both for the possible nano-food products and interestingly to the solution on how to guarantee their safety as well. However, concerns seem to be outweighed when the benefits are apparent – especially in case of such diseases as cancer or diabetes.
Read the full report here – D3.3- Briefing report on the outcomes of the online consultation*
In summary
GoNano methodology based on the co-creation platform aims to combineseveral ways of involving various stakeholders and strengthen the cooperation between research, business, policy makers, NGOs, wider public or the media in nano-related fields. The online consultation is an important step in the co-creation process that specifically brings broader perspective to the research aims and product suggestions of the stakeholders from the Stakeholder workshop 1 and at the same time adds additional input for the Stakeholder workshop.
Questionnaire design
The role of the qualitative analysis in the online questionnaire is to bring a more thorough understanding of nanotechnologies in general: (1) free associations of how people understand Nanotechnology without any a prior knowledge are being assessed and analysed, including the sentiment (positivity or negativity) that people “hold” towards nanotechnology. (2) needs and values –that were formulated by citizens during the citizen workshops and further elaborated by stakeholders during the stakeholders workshop 1 –were consequently prioritized for each application area. (3) product suggestions as a result of a cooperation of all the stakeholders involved were assessed concerning their (a) desirability and (b) subjectively perceived unsafety of the product suggestions. The role of quantitative analysis in the process is to provide pilot partners with valid and reliable input from as robust sample as possible to quantify and measure what would be perceived the most desirable and unsafe.
Data collection
The data collection for the online consultation started on July 1st 2019 and ended on September 13th 2019. From the original version, the questionnaire was translated into five languages and translations were tested within respective institutions – three pilot institutions (countries): TC CAS (Czech Rep.), UT (Netherlands), RMIT (Spain) and two partners (countries) involved: HiEW(Ireland), DBT(Denmark). The questionnaire was disseminated using a link through the Qualtrics platform.This link was unable to track identifying information of respondents.
The participants in the pilot countries were recommended – but could choose differently if they wanted –to fill in the respective topic area for its respective country: Energy in Spain, Food in the Czech Republic and Health in the Netherlands. In the Danish and Irish sample, participants could choose their desired topic without any suggestions which therefore served as a brief indicatorof which topic is the most interesting for the respondents to answer to.
Findings and reflection
Health and Food application areas are somehow more associated with safety concerns than Energy: subjectively perceived unsafety of a product suggestion and the desirability for the same product suggestion correlate only weakly when compared to moderate correlations in Health and Food product suggestions. The least safe perceived product suggestions are connected with Food: with “A food with a balanced mix of nutrients” and –surprisingly –“Analytical methods for the detection of nanoparticles”. Needs and values connected to safety are at the same time the most prioritized ones by respondents in both Food and Health application areas. Concerning stakeholders and their “responsibility” for the safe development of Nanotechnology, respondents stress the key role of researchers in the process, followed by stakeholders from business or policy makers. What can be considered rather successful seems to be the incorporation of as many views as possible including people from various socioeconomic backgrounds, city size, but alsolower educated participants as the overall percentageof respondents with primary and secondary education accounts for 54 % answers of all the respondents.
Read the full report here – D3.3- Briefing report on the outcomes of the online consultation*