The Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX) of the European Commission (EC) supports public administration by presenting EU legislation and facilitating the sharing of EU best practices. Besides countries of the European Union and enlargement areas, the TAIEX mandate to provide assistance also covers partner countries around the world. Funding in this case is provided via the Partnership Instrument (PI), which is designed to advance and promote EU and mutual interests abroad. The PI aims at addressing global challenges such as climate change, environmental protection and energy security and at supporting the external dimension of EU policies. It also addresses specific aspects of the EU’s market access, trade, investment and business opportunities and supports public diplomacy and outreach activities. In this context, providing technical assistance helps the EU to enhance policy cooperation with countries of strategic interest.

The Asian region is one of the regions of strategic interest to the EU and TAIEX is looking to strengthen the communication and collaboration between the two and establish a close and continuous relationship. This relationship can be translated into actions and scientific projects in common points of interest like nanotechnology, nanosafety, nanomedicine and nano-product certification and standardisation. It is the opinion of the EC that both the European and Asian regions can benefit from such a relationship and the exchange of ideas, experience and scientific knowledge.

Based on those principles the EC and TAIEX in collaboration with the EU NanoSafety Cluster (NSC), EU projects from the 7^th Framework (FP7) and Horizon 2020 (H2020) Programs, the Asia Nano Forum (ANF) and the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) organised an EU Scientific Mission to attend the 1^st Asia – Europe Dialogue on Nanosafety and Nanoproduct Certification (download booklet). The aim of the Mission was to identify areas of common scientific interest within the fields of nanosafety (NS) and nanotechnology (NT) (covering biotechnology and nanomedicine) and encourage technological research and development (R&D) activities. The activities included not only the fields of NS and NT, but also nanomedicine and most importantly nano-certification and nano-standardisation for processes, instruments and nanoproducts. Since those fields can be considered as non-competitive it is the belief of the EC that the public in both regions will significantly benefit from such a cooperation and potential harmonisation activities. The Mission also looked to establish relationships with Asian countries, institutes and scientists and explore the benefits of potential involvement of Researchers from those countries in future EU projects.

Following the success of the 1^st NSC delegation (download report) and the 2^nd EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety (download agenda) during the Industrial Technologies 2018 Conference (IndTech 2018), the 3^rd edition of the “EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety” took place in Bangkok, Thailand on 18^th of March, 2019.

NANOTEC organized the event during the ASEAN Next 2019 conference held at Pullman Hotel (Soi Rangnam) in Bangkok. Over 70 participants from 16 nations attended this dialogue.

The aim of the EU-Asia Dialogue on Nanosafety is to exchange information, knowledge and experience, as well as sharing resources between the major players from the EU and Asia. The main topic of the 3^rd Dialogue event was “Occupational Exposures to Manufactured Nanomaterials and Waste Disposal”. The decision to focus on occupational exposure and waste disposal was based on the discussion held between OECD and CDC – The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) program which gives importance to life cycle assessment of manufactured nanomaterials and related exposure scenarios in workplaces.

To know more or get involved with the EU NSC – Asia Nano Forum dialogue please contact either Andreas Falk (BioNanoNet) at Andreas.Falk@bionanonet.at for the EU or Ali Beitollahi at beitolla@iust.ac.ir for the ANF.