The Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT) is elucidating the relationship between a vast array of nanomaterials— from natural, to manufactured, to those produced incidentally by human activities— and their potential environmental exposure, biological effects, and ecological consequences. Headquartered at Duke University, CEINT is a collaboration between Duke, Carnegie Mellon University, Howard University, Virginia Tech, University of Kentucky, and Stanford University. CEINT academic collaborations in the US also include on-going activities coordinated with faculty at Clemson, North Carolina State, Rice, UCLA and North Carolina Central universities, with researchers at NIST and EPA government labs, and with key international partners.

Created in 2008 with funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Environmental Protection Agency, the CEINT performs fundamental research on the behavior of nano-scale materials in laboratory and complex ecosystems. Research includes all aspects of nanomaterial transport, fate and exposure, as well as ecotoxicological and ecosystem impacts. CEINT is developing risk assessment models to provide guidance in assessing existing and future concerns surrounding the environmental implications of nanomaterials.