The interdisciplinary approach to emerging technologies: an italian academic initiative

Abstract

The development of a consensus that ethical, legal and social issues are of the utmost importance in the governance of emerging technologies prompted the University of Padua to launch a new academic research initiative to seize the opportunities and promises of emerging nanotechnologies. It has established the Centre for Environmental Law Decisions and Corporate Ethical Certification (CIGA),1 in the Italian town of Rovigo, in the Veneto Region, with the aim of giving proper attention to their ethical and social sustainability.