INTRODUCTION
N & N
i n
S p a i n
launching a first wave of nanoproducts into the markets. However, the actual power of Nanotechnology resides in an immense potential for the manufacture of consumer goods that, in many cases, will not be commercialized before a couple of decades, thus bringing tangible and promising results for the economy. Because this huge expected economic impact, nanotechnology has roused great interest among the relevant public and private R&D stakeholders of the world’s most developed countries: funding agencies, scientific policymakers, organisations, institutions and companies.
control of Nanotechnology know-how. According to Mihail Roco, Japan increased their budget from US$ 245 million in 2000 to US$ 950 million in 2009, proving a significant rising of the investment from the Japanese Government. Taiwanese, Japanese and South Korean companies are leading the Nanotechnology investments in their respective countries. In the meantime, China has become a key player in the Nanotechnology field, leading sectors as the fabrication of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. Countries as Israel, Iran, India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have launched specific programmes to promote the use of Nanotechnologies in many industrial sectors with local or regional impact (manufacture, textile, wood, agriculture, water remediation, etc).
N&N represent one of the fastest growing areas of R&D. In the period of 1997-2005 worldwide investment in Nanotechnology research and development has increased approximately nine times, from US$ 432 million to US$ 4200 million. This represents an average annual growth rate of 32%. A great example is the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) that was established in 2000 and links 25 federal agencies closely related to activities in N&N. NNI budget allocated to the federal departments and agencies increased from US$ 464 million in 2001 to approximately US$ 1700 million in 2009. For 2011 the funding request for nanotechnology research and development (R&D) in 15 federal departments and agencies is US$ 1760 million, reflecting a continuous growth in strategic collaboration to accelerate the discovery and deployment of nanotechnology. In addition to the federal initiative, an important effort has been carried out by the different US state governments, as well as companies (Motorola, Intel, HewlettPackard, IBM, Amgen, Abbot Lab., Agilent, etc).
Europe has intensively promoted Nanotechnology within the VI (FP6) and the VII (FP7) Framework Programme through thematic Areas denominated NMP1 and ICT2. During the period of 2003-2006 the budget for NMP was 1429 million Euros and a remarkable increase of 3475 million Euros for funding N&N over the duration of FP7 (2007-2013). There’s a proven commitment of the EU to strengthen research in Europe. Initiatives involving not only increased investment, but also stronger coordination and collaboration between all stakeholders like the FET flagship (ICT) are being implemented. In order to improve the competitiveness of European industry, to generate and ensure transformation from a resource-intensive to a knowledge-intensive industry were created the FET Flagships Initiatives. FET-Proactive acts as a pathfinder for the ICT program by fostering novel non-conventional approaches, foundational research and supporting initial developments on long-term research and technological innovation in selected themes. Under the FP7 program were created AMOL-IT, nanoICT and Towards Zero-Power ICT projects in order to focus resources on visionary and
Industrialized Asian countries have promoted the development of Nanotechnology from the industrial and governmental sectors, with investments similar to those of USA. Countries as Taiwan and Korea have made a great effort to keep their current privileged positions in the
8