National Nanotechnology Initiative Unveils Strategic Plan

by Barton Reppert

A new strategic plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) sizes up the government R&D effort’s first five years as a success and lays out an ambitious agenda for continuing development of nanotechnology over the next five to 10 years.

Released in December, the plan was mandated under provisions of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, signed into law in late 2003. The National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) prepared it.

In a transmittal letter accompanying the 31-page document, White House science adviser John H. Marburger III commented that “R&D supported by the NNI could lead to cleaner and less wasteful methods of manufacture, stronger and lighter building materials, smaller yet faster computers, and more powerful ways to detect and treat disease.”

“In its first five years, the NNI, through the participating agencies, has advanced our knowledge of matter at the nanoscale, and has made progress toward establishing the infrastructure needed to allow further scientific and technological breakthroughs,” Marburger wrote. “By implementing the plan described in this report over the next five years and beyond, the NNI will ensure that the United States remains a world leader in nanotechnology R&D, and will facilitate the transition of results to strengthen the U.S. economy and to address national needs.”

According to the NNI report, since the National Nanotechnology Initiative was launched in fiscal year 2001, the annual federal investment in nanotechnology R&D has more than doubled to almost $1 billion, while the number of federal agencies investing in nanotech R&D has grown from six to 11. The total number of agencies participating in the government initiative has grown from six to 22.

“The strategy for the initiative that was laid out in 2001 has been, by all measures, a success,” according to the NNI plan document. “Nanotechnology R&D has led to substantial increases in scientific knowledge, publications, patents, and new jobs and businesses in this area. Much of this success is directly or indirectly based on the results of federally funded R&D, and the NNI has become the model for similar programs around the world.”

The strategic plan set forth the following four basic goals for the future:

• Maintain a world-class research and development program aimed at realizing the full potential of nanotechnology

• Facilitate transfer of new technologies into products for economic growth, jobs and other public benefit

• Develop educational resources, a skilled workforce, and the supporting infrastructure and tools to advance nanotechnology

• Support responsible development of nanotechnology

The document described various efforts that are now being made, or are planned, to facilitate technology transfer from research into products. Current activities in pursuit of this goal include establishing NSET industry liaison groups with various commercial sectors; supporting meetings of researchers from academia, government, and industry; fostering interaction through the establishment or support of user facilities available to researchers from all sectors; requiring that all National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers include industry partners; and participating in standards development activities, including the American National Standards Institute Nanotechnology Standards Panel established in September 2004.

In the area of responsible development, the NNI Strategic Plan noted that this goal involves addressing various societal implications of nanotechnology. “Societal dimensions include a diverse range of subjects, such as access to benefits arising from nanotechnology, effects on the labor pool, changes in the way medicine is practiced, the impact of manufacturing locally at the point of need, concerns regarding possible health or environmental effects, and privacy concerns arising from distributed nanotechnology-based sensors,” the report said.

When asked what single, most important message the Strategic Plan conveys, Dr. James S. Murday, executive secretary of NSET and superintendent of the Chemistry Division at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., said: “There is a continuing commitment to basic research, but with growing attention to the transition of research discovery into innovative technology. This is particularly significant in the sense that progress in nanoscience has been very rapid and, only five years into the NNI, technology is already becoming evident.”

On the question of collaboration with U.S. industry, Murday observed: “The NNI has been reaching out to industrial collaborations. Something called CBAN — consultative boards to advance nanotechnology — has been initiated. Thus far, the electronics and chemical industries have each established a CBAN. The NNI is working on additional CBAN relationships with the bioindustry, the automotive industry and the aerospace industry.”

Dr. Clifford Lau, a researcher with the Institute for Defense Analyses, in Alexandria, Va., and past president of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council (a multidisciplinary group whose purpose is to advance and coordinate work in nanotechnology carried out throughout the IEEE), said he is quite satisfied with the new NNI Strategic Plan.

Lau was particularly impressed by a four-page section of the document detailing cross-cutting areas of application, involving nanotechnology work by multiple government agencies. Agency participation and partnerships are listed for application areas including aerospace, agriculture and food, national defense and homeland security, energy, environmental improvement, information technologies, medicine and health, and transportation and civil infrastructure.

Chad Wieland, a patent attorney with Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis in Alexandria, Va., is encouraged to see that the membership of NSET, the NSTC subcommittee which oversees the NNI, now includes two representatives from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“That is the first time that I know of, and I think it must be the first time ever, that the Patent Office has been involved in this kind of activity on the federal level,” Wieland commented, adding: “It demonstrates that the people in the federal government who are aware of nanotechnology’s needs recognize the extremely strong need for a strong patent system to be in place with respect to nanotechnology.”

Richard H. Smith, co-founder of the Nanotechnology Policy Foundation and principal of Nanoverse LLC, a nanotechnology commercialization venture, remarked about the NNI Strategic Plan: “I think they’ve done a very good job at least in terms of laying out the broad goals.”

Smith is impressed by the plan’s increased attention to the development component of R&D. “They seem to me to be putting more emphasis on commercialization and development than they had in the past,” he says.

Smith also commented that the new plan indicates some increase of emphasis on dealing with societal implications of nanotechnology. “This document reflects a much broader understanding of the range of potential societal implications than they’d ever shown before. The examples that they give still tend to be in the area of toxicology, which is understandable. But they do recognize the kind of things that we ought to be thinking about, like how it is going to influence job creation,” Smith said.

IEEE-USA's Perspective IEEE-USA believes that nanotechnology is an enabling technology that will positively affect all aspects of the nation's economy and quality of life, and will help America maintain its technological leadership. In 2003, IEEE-USA approved a policy position statement in support of nanotechnology R&D, calling on Congress and the Executive Branch to: authorize continued and stable funding for the NNI; encourage and support nanotechnology-related technology transfer programs; provide Incentives for commercialization; facilitate development and implementation of nanotechnology standards; support nanotechnology education programs; and explore the societal and environmental implications of nanotechnology. more

Barton Reppert is a freelance science and technology writer based in Gaithersburg, Md. He previously worked for 18 years as a reporter and editor with The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., New York and Moscow. E-mail: barton.reppert@verizon.net