The UK has started a quality award scheme for businesses in the micro and nanotechnology industries to ensure that companies adhere to basic standards. The scheme will also protect the public image of the field, which has previously attracted negative coverage over alleged safety issues.
“We really want to make sure that the companies taking part in any aspect of nanotech maintain the image and the standards,” said Dave Sharp, a science and technology consultant for UK Trade and Investment, the Government agency promoting the UK’s nanotechnology efforts.
“We have a strong international position and we don’t want that undermined by any unprofessional behaviour. Any carelessness in a lab in a university, for example, could be very dangerous,” said Sharp.
The UK, which was recently handed the chairmanship of the ISO committee on nanotechnology standards, is two years into a six-year, £90m effort to develop a micro and nanotechnology manufacturing industry. The scheme was a response to a 2002 report by Sir John Taylor into the country’s nanotechnology capabilities, which found that while significant activity was going on, it needed to be better coordinated.
“We’ve got a really well joined-up nanotech environment in the UK, so much so that we’re now the nominated international chairman of the ISO standards committee,” said Sharp. “The MNT Quality Mark is basically just common sense best practice, making sure that companies adopt it and maintain it.”
The initiative borrows heavily from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ award scheme for manufacturing excellence. It has been launched in part as a response to a report last year from the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering on the state of MNT and how it should be regulated.
So far five companies have achieved the standard for the Quality Mark. The awards will be presented at the end of the month.
mnt.globalwatchonline.com