The GoNano project is built on the assumption that nanotechnologies are more likely to gain broad acceptance if they take public values and concerns into account at early stages of innovation. To test this hypothesis, GoNano will organise co-creation processes in different areas of nanotechnological application (Food, Health, and Energy), combining online consultations, face-to-face citizen engagement and stakeholder workshops. See the general introduction to GoNano for further information about our overall approach.
The co-creation process in the health area will be led by our Dutch partner, the University of Twente (UT). UT will organise a series of citizen and stakeholder workshops in the Netherlands to gauge public attitudes and feed these insights into ongoing research and innovation in the health area.
Nano and Health
Nanomedicine – the application of nanotechnologies in healthcare – is a rapidly expanding field of medical research. Nanomedicine covers a wide range of applications including targeted drug delivery, biosensors, biodevices, imaging and regenerative medicine. The NanoWerk Introduction to Nanotechnology in Healthcare provides an excellent summary of research areas and applications. As nano-enabled diagnostics and therapies will begin to enter the medical field, the role of users (particularly patients) will become ever more important. User-led innovation is a burgeoning area in medicine: there is a growing awareness that future healthcare has to be developed with the patient, rather than merely for the patient. Patients are both a vital source of information (rare disease research for example is simply impossible without the central involvement of patient groups), and determine the acceptability of new medical innovations. Nanomedicine thus consitutes an excellent environment for co-creation.
Co-creation
The University of Twente (UT) will organise a series of citizen and stakeholder workshops in the Netherlands to gauge public attitudes, and to feed these insights into ongoing research and innovation in the health area. Two other GoNano partners, The Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the European Office of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT, will run parallel co-creation processes in the area of Food and Energy, respectively.