The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is developing a nanotechnology standards "wiki" for online collaboration among nanomaterials scientists.

Federal government and U.S. industry scientists are forging ahead with plans to establish an international online forum for collaboration that aims to accelerate development of products with ultra-small dimensions while minimizing potential environmental, health, and safety risks. The collaboration will focus on the creation of critically needed nanotechnology standards for biomedical and health applications, including Standard Reference Materials and test methods. Combining efforts of materials scientists and measurement laboratories with those of biological and medical researchers, the new Internet-linked "community of interest" will exploit Web 2.0-style social networking technologies for creating and sharing information, as well as deliberating over technical details. The initial focus will be on preliminary-stage development of standards for characterizing the structure and properties of engineered nanoscale materials—those with at least one feature measuring between 1 nanometer (nm) and 100 nm.