USDA CSREES Nano Project- Intellectual Merit
NRI, Competitive Grants Program, Opportunity 75.4 (Nanoscale Science and Engineering for Agriculture and Food Systems):
Assessment and analysis of perceptions and acceptance of nanotechnology and nano-based products by the general public, agriculture, and food stakeholders using appropriate social science tools.
IFAS pursues the RFA goal via an extension-based approach to public engagement designed specifically to capture stakeholder interactions with and perceptions of agrifood nanotechnologies, and to translate this information ‘upstream’ to agrifood policy organizations.
To accomplish this, a series of workshops are planned. Those should involve extension educators, social scientists, agrifood policy organizations, and nanoscience experts, the objectives of which will be to
- familiarize extension educators with agrifood nanotechnologies,
- ensure that they are prepared to apply relevant social science concepts and methods for documenting key perceptual data revealed through their interactions with other agrifood stakeholders in the course of their field activities, and
- develop systems that translate those data to agrifood policy organizations so as to increase the likelihood of its utilization.