This document presents a first review of over 80 projects on safety research in the field of nanotechnology that the participating governmental research institutions carried out themselves or awarded to external institutions on the basis of the joint research strategy of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) from 2007. In addition, core themes and issues are derived for the future direction of the federal government’s safety research. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) have since joined. Other governmental research institutions are to be included in a further step.

In the last five years, governmental research on the safety of nanomaterials concentrated in relation to individual cases on material characterisation, effects analysis, exposure of man and the environment and questions on risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. It has been possible to close numerous gaps in knowledge; a series of findings has already flowed into national and international papers and debates on the opportunities and risks of nanotechnology.