ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I analyze the impact of funding programs on the scientific agendas and practices of interdisciplinary research groups. Until the mid-2000s, nanomedicine remained a label that brought together disparate scientific practices and diverse understandings of biomedical applications of nanotechnologies. From the mid-2000s onwards, funding agencies formulated performative expectations, describing future technologies and biomedical applications and also helping researchers to bring them into being (Pollock & Williams, 2010). I show that nanomedicine then became a social space in which actors share certain epistemic commitments or visions of the relevance of their research articulated to scientific practices and networks (Granjou & Arpin, 2015). Funding programs constrain the design of interdisciplinary nanomedicine projects; they also support the formation of scientific networks and organizations that coordinate scientific agendas and establish strategies common to researchers in the field. I examine the social activities, such as debates about quality standards and data sharing practices, through which nanomedicine teams meet the requirements of funding agencies and build an interdisciplinary research culture.
