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.