GOVERNANCE AND SANDBOX: BUILDING SELF-REGULATION MODELS FOR NANOTECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The 21st century is marked by the emergence of a new Industrial Revolution, the fourth, which is characterized by speed, systemic impact, in addition to breadth and depth. Nanotechnologies are born from the human possibilities of accessing the so-called nano scale: the scale that is equivalent to a billionth of a meter. When it comes to nanotechnologies and products generated from this scale, there is something new in research and production, which can generate effects that are still little known by human beings, especially through the interfaces with the human body and the environment. There is an openness to formulating regulatory environments, structured from a varied set of principles and designing agile, flexible and adequate “regulated self-regulation” models. The choice of the structuring principles of these directives must take into account the guidelines of ethics and be enriched with dimensions coming from the environment where these scientific-technological innovations. The governance of the various stakeholders in nanoscale regulation and the combination of principles, to be tested in Regulatory Sandbox, as real laboratories for improvements in normative models that are structured from principles sought in national and international organizations.