Convergence of Science and Society: "Power of Small Nanotechnolgy"

This report presents a summary of findings from our evaluation and conclusions that may carry broader implications. The audience for this report includes The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other funders (particularly science research funders), the leadership and staff of Nanotechnology: the Convergence of Science and Society project partners, and the informal science education field. The main body of the report is organized into two sections. The first section discusses the project's logic model, or theory of action and frames what the project set out to do and how. The project's accomplishments are discussed in some detail in this first section. The second section presents what we think is a core outcome of the project, namely a promising model for engaging the public, stakeholders and scientists in dialogue about social issues related to nanotechnology and other emerging science areas, the NanoFutures Forums. We consider the second section to be the heart of our evaluation, as it related most directly to the goals of the project, addressed our evaluation questions most succinctly, and we believe offers the most promise in terms of contributing to ways science and society issues can be addressed directly with the public, stakeholders and scientists. We conclude the report with a section about lessons learned, applications, returns-on-investment and future investments. Finally, attached to the report is a set of appendices, which provide additional detail, data, and the framework we generated and used to consider and evaluate the discourse that took place at the NanoFutures Forums.

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