The NSC has defined and designated four critical challenges as its initial areas of focus: occupational health and safety, to include exposure to nanoparticles in the workplace; environmental health and safety, to assess the impact and life cycles of nanomaterials; resource utilization, to study decreasing water, energy and chemical usage while increasing efficiency; and proactive collaborative research and development, from new device materials and processing fluids to manufacturing processes and tools.
As of February 2011, NSC will receive funding of at least $10 million over the next five years and is expected to catalyze the creation of more than 100 high-tech EHS
jobs at the UAlbany NanoCollege, while offering access to hundreds of
experts and leading-edge technologies in a first-of-its-kind effort to
address emerging occupational and environmental health and safety
issues in order to solve manufacturing problems, leverage resources,
and reduce cost and risk.
CNSE Associate Vice President and Director of the Systems Toxicology Laboratory Professor Thomas Begley serves as Director of the NSC. Oversight is provided by a steering committee consisting of CNSE and ISMI representatives, chaired by Professor Sara Brenner, CNSE Assistant Vice President for NanoHealth Initiatives, and an ISMI Project Advisory Board consisting of ISMI, CNSE and member companies, which review and approve programs.
Membership in the NSC is open to chipmakers, equipment and materials manufacturers, as well as other participants in the nanotechnology, biomedical, and defense industries. In addition, the NSC and its members will collaborate with a broad network of companies, consortia, universities, national laboratories and associations from around the world.