14-1190b-innovation-managing-risk-evidence

Sciencewise has guided
17 experimental dialogue
projects on issues ranging from
nanotechnology and stem cell
research, to the uses of DNA in
forensics and geoengineering to
combat climate change.
The chemical and
pharmaceutical
industries are the
United Kingdom’s biggest
manufacturing export
earner. Together, they have
a turnover of £60 billion
and support 500,000 jobs.
Many major global
industries are built around
once-marginal technologies,
like wind turbines, ecological
farming, or super energyefficient
buildings. Grassroots
social movements were all
involved in their pioneering
origins.
If there is still considerable
scientific uncertainty after
quantifying risks, then it is
reasonable to be cautious as
a temporary holding position:
amber, rather than red.
Between 2002 and 2007, the UK invested over
£150 million in research into the development and
impact of nanotechnologies.
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Innovation is not a one
track race to the future.
Each direction for innovation
is a social choice involving
issues of uncertainty, legitimacy
and accountability as well as
competitiveness.