Articles
All industries require codes of practice – standards and guidelines to ensure that products and manufacturing processes can be traded. Emerging and disruptive technologies such as graphene, wearable electronics and nanotechnology are no different.
There are a huge number of standards pertaining to product design, processing and characterisation, but they take a considerable time to update and often lag behind industry best practice. In some cases the standard can itself be the obstruction to improving best practice, requiring that any new process or material be assessed and evidence gathered to provide a case for change. In contrast, over-regulation and fragmented standards (different reporting schemes in different countries for example) can stifle innovation and put a strain on manufacturers.
For decades, the international regulatory bodies have grappled with myriad challenges in creating appropriate guidance and directives covering areas such as procurement, worker and public safety, hazards and exposure, testing and patenting, and intellectual property. The creation of such regulation and governance often finds itself at odds with the innovative process. This is not uncommon for an emerging technology; indeed both the composite materials and graphene fields are suffering from these issues.
But if this ‘governance gap’ is not addressed, governments run the risk of affecting product commercialisation as industry turns its back on R&D investment. This in turn could lead to a reduction in the skilled workforce needed to develop technology and further erode the UK’s standing as one of the top R&D nations of the world and further polarising societies’ views on emerging technologies.
The public have shown that they are quite able to take on board and consider the risks and benefits of emerging technologies. However, when it comes to regulations they want transparency. A lack of public trust has developed over the last few decades regarding emerging and new technologies and the financial markets.
Governments find it increasingly difficult to convince the public that investment in research for the public good is of value. There is, for example, some concern by the public that the hype surrounding nanotechnology will overshadow their fears regarding potential adverse effects on health, the environment, uses in military applications and excessive control of intellectual property.
Having invested resources into emerging technologies, governments and businesses often struggle to convince a sceptical public that existing regulatory frameworks are not there to purely benefit industry – it is a balancing act between promoting development of technology and securing public trust in safe commercial applications. Indeed, this has been a common problem across the world, with European countries the least trusting of governments and businesses.
If the UK is to maintain a competitive position in R&D, production and application of emerging technologies, it is vital that British industry be in the vanguard of international standard setting. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has already called for government to provide additional funds to support governing bodies and the British Standards Institution in composite materials regulation, and this request is even more pertinent to emerging technologies such as nanotechnology where governance gaps are much greater in the early stages of development.
Additional government funding should be made available to guarantee the UK’s position as thought leaders in standard setting, regulated internationally through flexible governance and risk research strategies. Furthermore, new ways of engagement are needed to enable governments, business and society to think through the choices and agree on the right way to manage emerging technologies and grow innovation.
The key to this is framing these technologies in a way that makes it understandable and applicable to everyday life while demonstrating adherence to regulation in a transparent way.