NCMS releases survey of nanotechnology in the US manufacturing industry

Filed in archive Business on August 1, 2006

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) has just completed its National Science Foundation funded survey of over 600 senior-level executives in leading U.S. organizations to assess private and public investments in nanotechnology under the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

The survey confirms that the U.S. has the best-developed and mature research facilities, entrepreneurial culture and governance infrastructure for promoting new nanotechnology driven economic development.

Among the many interesting findings are a list of barriers faced by the U.S. nanomanufacturing industry and recommendations for overcoming them:

Barrier: High cost of processing; Process scalability issues; Lack of development tools
Recommendation: Collaborative R&D in value-chains; R&D to reduce/combine process steps; R&D in new equipment and to improve product yields

Barrier: Long time-to-market; Unclear societal benefits
Recommendation: Government incentives for private R&D investments; Raise public awareness of benefits via successes; Promote supplier/end-user partnerships

Barrier: Insufficient investment capital
Recommendation: Government investment in pre-competitive R&D; Stimulate market pull via end-users; Mentor start-ups for attracting investment

Barrier: Intellectual Property (IP) issues
Recommendation: New business models for nanotech value-chains; Legal reform, train legal and judicial professionals; Streamline partnering with academia and National Labs; Facilitate supplier/end-user partnerships

Barrier: Shortage of qualified manpower/Multi-disciplinary aspects
Recommendation: Retrain tech workforce in basic science/testing/quality; Attract students to science and engineering careers

Barrier: Regulatory and safety concerns/Environmental and toxicity issues
Recommendation: Streamline permit/product approvals at agencies; Increase government-sponsored R&D; Broader dissemination of findings; Balanced legislation and regulatory practices

Azonano.com offers a nice summary of the report's findings. The full report is also available in pdf from NCMS.