International Strategy for Nanotechnology Research and Development*
M.C. Roco, Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, National
Science Foundation, mroco@nsf.gov, http://www.nsf.gov/nano; Chair, U.S. National Science and Technology
Council's subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET)
August 28, 2001
(*) J. of Nanoparticle Research, Kluwer Academic
Publ., Vol. 3, No. 5-6, pp. 353-360, 2001 (based on the presentation at the
symposium Global Nanotechnology Networking, International Union of Materials
Meeting, August 28, 2001)
Abstract
The worldwide nanotechnology research and development (R&D) investment reported by government organizations has increased by a factor of 3.5 between 1997 and 2001, and the highest rate of 90% is in 2001. At least 30 countries have initiated or are beginning national activities in this field. Scientists have opened a broad net of discoveries that does not leave any major research area untouched in physical, biological, and engineering sciences. Industry has gained confidence that nanotechnology will bring competitive advantages. The worldwide annual industrial production is estimated to exceed $1 trillion in 10 - 15 years from now, which would require about 2 million nanotechnology workers. U.S. has initiated a multidisciplinary strategy for development of science and engineering fundaments through the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Japan and Europe have broad programs, and their current plans look ahead to four to five years. Other countries have encouraged their own areas of strength, several of them focusing on fields of the potential markets. Differences among countries are observed in the research domain they are aiming for, the level of program integration into various industrial sectors, and in the time scale of their R&D targets. Nanotechnology is growing in an environment where international interactions accelerate in science, education and industrial R&D. A global strategy of mutual interest is envisioned by connecting individual programs of contributing countries, professional communities, and international organizations.
Keywords: nanoscience, nanotechnology, R&D programs, research funding,
international collaboration
Introduction
Nanoscale science and engineering
advancements satisfy the human need for exploration across science and technology
boundaries. Nanotechnology has the
long term potential to bring revolutionary changes in society and harmonize
international efforts towards a higher purpose than just advancing a single
field of science and technology, or a single geographical region. Unifying science based on building blocks at
the nanoscale will facilitate the technology converge. It has the potential to enhance human performance,
to bring sustainable development for materials, water, energy and food, to
protect against unknown bacteria and viruses, and even to diminish the reasons
of breaking peace.
As education, research and industrial production are becoming more international, it is important to identify the global trends and explore international opportunities. Several trends are noted in this paper, and suggestions are made for an overall strategy of nanotechnology development in the world.
Research environment
The
fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology are broad and still exploratory,
with connections to almost all disciplines and areas of relevance. Their development is a condition for the progress
of other key technologies, including biotechnology and digital revolution.
The net of nanoscale R&D is not leaving any major research area
untouched. The benefits are evident not only in short
term (through mostly 'rudimentary' nanoscale technologies) but particularly
in medium (5-15 years) and long term. Researchers
and industry experts have gained confidence that we are closing in on this
missing length in science and engineering: the question is no longer if nanotechnology
would ever be developed, but who will lead in various areas.
It is estimated that 2001 is somewhere at the beginning sector of the
classical "S" development curve of nanotechnology, and we need about
five years to get on the fast rising sector of that curve (Figure 1).
The increasing rate of scientific discoveries supports this statement. Several characteristics of the current research
environment are listed below.
It has been estimated that about $1 trillion products will be affected by nanotechnology in 10-15 years from now (Roco and Bainbridge, eds., 2001, page 3-4). This estimation was obtained using information from industry. If one consider a relatively large production per worker ($0.5 million/year), a forecast of 2 million workers is obtained. It is expected that nanotechnology know-how and products will enter our daily lives in a progressive manner in this time interval. This is a relatively short term if we compare to information technology, where there is a shortage of qualified professionals even if the field has more than four decades of progressive development. Disruptive technologies, shortage of human resources, changes in economical structures, and other 'non-scalable' events are expected because of the qualitatively new technological environment. Initially less sophisticated nanoscale processes and structures such as nanolayers, nanoparticle assemblies, one-dimensional nanoscale processes, will enter the market place, and will continuously be replaced by the next level of complexity. The destination of the typical measuring tools at the nanoscale may be used to approximate the most affected sectors of the economy. Digital-Veeco Instruments has introduced the first commercial Scanning Probe Microscopes about 10 years ago, and sold about 3000 Scanning Probe Microscopes. That is more than half of the global market in that decade (Heaton, 2001). In that interval, the market of the Digital-Veeco Instruments has been in the following areas: materials 30-35%; semiconductors 18-25% (35% in one year 2000); data storage 15-20 %; life sciences 9-14%; polymers 8-12 %; electrochemistry 3-5 %; and optics 2-4%.
Global awareness of the potential of new technology has created a climate of scientific and technological competition and visions of "general good", and has began to move human and financial resources into industry and business.
Concerns of "not losing the train this time" are heard as well as in large corporations and in several countries. The 'lost train' makes reference to earlier opportunities in the areas such as genome program, biotechnology or information technology. Increasing attention on nanotechnology has brought in action highly qualified researchers and educators, and more recently industry and even public investment groups. It is noted that science fiction stories have taken off in popular press almost immediately after the first years of discoveries in scanning probes for detecting nanostructures on surfaces. Now, the excitement of actual scientific discoveries is pervasive and obviously has taken the central stage in media. The National Nanotechnology Initiative announced by the U.S. President highlighted the increased recognition of the field.
The R&D efforts are distributed worldwide.
However, the current efforts
are dominated by U.S., Japan and EC, where government investments are comparable.
The market of Digital-Veeco Instruments may be used again as an indication.
Regional market sizes are: 40-45% in U.S., 25-30% in Japan, 15-20% in Europe,
Asia Pacific region (without Japan) - 5-10%, others about 5%.
Converging science and technology fields.
Nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, biomedical and cognitive sciences, and system approach develop in close interdependence. The synergism among the converging fields will play a determinant role in the birth and growth of new technologies. The convergence is sought beginning from the molecular scale.
The globalization accelerates.
R&D globalization will be
the environment in which nanotechnology will develop. Opportunities for collaboration towards an international nanotechnology
effort, particularly in the precompetitive areas, will amplify once those
national programs are in place. Also,
one may note that large companies rely heavily on R&D results from external
company sources (about 80% in 2001), of which a large proportion is from another
country (Europe 35%, Japan 33%, U.S. 12%, according to E. Roberts, 2001).
An increased number of companies act globally with significant flow
of ideas, capital, and people.
Technology development risks are addressed in the societal context.
Responsible organizations are addressing with increased attention the ethical and legal aspects of nanotechnology development and potential implications. Monitoring the societal implications and informing the public is one of the tasks in attention by the U.S. National Science and Technology Council subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET).
International Timeline
Before the wave
Reaching directly at the building blocks of matter - atoms, molecules and their primary organized structures - is a historical event for science and technology. Living systems and man-made products work at the nanoscale, but limited fundamental knowledge and insufficient investigative tools kept us away from understanding the basic material structures, phenomena and mechanisms. Richard Feynman challenge the scientific community to explore the "space at the bottom" since 1959; however, nanoscale R&D activities have been initiated in several countries only few years after Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer have invented the scanning tunneling microscope for seeing and touching nanostructures on surfaces in 1981. The research activities in the late 1980s were fragmented between disciplines and areas of relevance. Measurement of clusters of atoms/molecules on surfaces was one of the first areas of research focus. Chemistry selfassembling received an increased attention in the 1980s, by pioneering contributions such as those of Jean Marie Lehn. Then, bucky balls (R.F. Curl, Jr., H.W. Kroto and R.E. Smalley in 1985) and nanotubes (S. Iijima in 1991) come into attention as models for what would come. Because of their relatively simple geometry, easier measurement of size effects and potential path to applications, nanoparticle research has begun sooner than for other more complex nanostructures. The first U.S. program focused on nanoscale science and engineering was on new concepts for high rate Synthesis and Processing of Nanoparticles since 1991 (NSF, 1991). A similar experience was in Japan (see for example Uyeda, 1991) and Europe (see Fissan, 1997). In earlier 1990s, nanoscience was still perceived as a field of interest to a small number of researchers looking to small things mostly associated with a field of relevance such as microelectronics or precision engineering. The current dominant R&D component is experimental investigation of nanoscale structures or components, and less on predictive and deductive approaches, and on system architecture.
The attention of various organizations on the growing potential of nanoscience has been risen by studies of the situation in a specific field or country, for example in Germany (Bachmann, 1996), in EC (E.C., 1997), and UN (UNIDO, 1997). The recognition of nanoscience and nanotechnology as a key trend in science of technology of the 21st century advanced much closer in 1997-1998. General media was still dominated by the science fiction perception of nanotechnology, and the potential of nanoscience was not fully accepted in the scientific, technical and business communities.
National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)
In the United States, NNI has unified the vision of
nanotechnology and brought its broad acceptance. The vision has gained recognition following several studies starting
with the second part of 1996: a U.S. survey and an international survey with
a group of experts travelling around the world (WTEC, 1997a, 997b, and 1997c),
nanotechnology research directions (Roco, Williams and Alivisatos, 1999),
and a worldwide comparative report (Siegel, Hu and Roco, 1999). A transforming strategy for nanotechnology
R&D has forged the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NSTC, 2000),
and better understanding of the close connection between technology and society
has been formulated (Roco and Bainbridge, 2001). The U.S. President Clinton announced
the first coherent national nanotechnology program with participation from
key federal agencies, private sector and academe in January 2000. This program has stimulated activities in other
countries. In 2001, virtually all
developed countries have initiated or have national programs in advanced planning.
Several countries have adopted coordinating offices at the national
level similar to the National Science and Technology Council in U.S.
Perception of nanotechnology has changed since 1998, as it suggested in Figure 2. While nanotechnology was seen as too far from industrial practice (more as a "science fiction") before 1998, the perception changed significantly after the unifying and transforming vision of the field published in 1999 that moved nanotechnology towards a possibility for long-term ("expect it in 15-30 years"). The implementation of NNI starting in October 2000 and following expansion of the R&D research worldwide has caused a second shift in perception: nanoscale has the potential to become the most efficient manufacturing length scale, industry and business groups become convinced that nanotechnology will produce a paradigm shift in economy.
Figure 2. Perception of
nanoscience (NS) and nanotechnology (NT)
between 1998 and 2001: a rapid evolution
Global investment
More than 30 countries have activities and plans at the national level in nanotechnology area in 2001. The government investments in nanoscale S&T more than tripled between 1997 ($432 million) to 2001 ($1,577 million). The increase in 2001 exceeds the increases in the previous three years (see Table 1 and Figure 3). The data presented in Table 1 are based on information collected from other government programs (U.S. Senate Briefing on May 24, 2001; M. Roco) and updated with revised data for 2001 according to presentations at the Global Nanotechnology Networking meeting organized by the International Union of Materials, August 30, 2001.
In Asia, there are growing
programs in Japan, as well as in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. In Europe, besides the EU countries, Switzerland
has a strong program. Russia and Ukraine
maintain research activities, especially on advanced materials synthesis and
processing. Emerging programs have
been announced in Eastern Europe. In North America, Canadian National Research
Council has created the National Institute of Nanotechnology in Edmonton,
Alberta with $80 million funding for five years. In Mexico there are about 20 research groups
which are working independently. International
activities and agreements have increased in importance. Examples are the agreements are between NSF
and EU, APEC, Russia and China, the states of New York (US) and Quebec (Canada).
Table 1. Estimated
government nanotechnology R&D expenditures (in $ millions/year)
Explanatory notes: "W. Europe" includes countries in
EU and Switzerland; the rate of exchange $1 = 1.1 Euro; Japan rate of exchange
$1 = 120 yen; "Others" include Australia, Canada, China, FSU, Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan and other countries with nanotechnology R&D; Financial year begins in USA on October 1 of the previous
year (denoted by "a" in the table), and in most other countries on
March 1 or April 1 of the respective year (denoted by "b")
(*) Estimations
use the nanotechnology definition as in NNI (see Roco, Williams and Alivisatos,
1999), and include the publicly reported government spending. Note that Japan has supplemented its initial
$410 million nanotechnology investment in 2001 with about $140 million (added
in this table to yield $550 milion) for nanomaterials including metals and polymers;
it is not clear if all components of the additional $140 million program would satisfy the NNI definition.
|
Area |
1997 a
b |
1998 a
b |
1999 a
b |
2000 a
b |
2001 a
b |
2002 a
Requests |
|
W. Europe |
126 |
151 |
179 |
200 |
225 |
|
|
Japan |
120 |
135 |
157 |
245 |
410 +
140* |
|
|
USA |
116 |
190 |
255 |
270 |
422 |
519 |
|
Others* |
70 |
83 |
96 |
110 |
380 |
|
|
Total (% of 1997) |
432 100% |
559 129% |
687 159% |
825 191% |
1,577 365% |
|
Figure 3. Worldwide government funding for nanotechnology R&D (August 2001)
Nanotechnology has been defined in Table 1 according
to NNI, that is: Research and technology
development at the atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels, in the length
scale of approximately 1 - 100 nanometer range, to provide a fundamental
understanding of phenomena and materials at the nanoscale and to create and use
structures, devices and systems that have novel properties and functions
because of their small and/or intermediate size. The novel and differentiating properties and functions are
developed at a critical length scale of matter typically under 100 nm. Nanotechnology research and development
includes control and material manipulation at the nanoscale, and integration of
nanoscale structures into larger material components, systems and
architectures. Within these larger
scale assemblies, the control and construction of their structures and
components remains at the nanometer scale.
Strategy in the world
Several trends of the strategy for nanotechnology R&D investments have been identified:
- Diverse R&D focus as a function of country.
From the current broad opportunities of R&D starts-up, countries are developing areas responding to their own expertise and needs. They look for niches in the international nanotechnology R&D mosaic and in this way complement each other efforts. Overall, one may note a "selfassembled" distribution. The focus varies from a general science based strategy (for example U.S. and France) to industry relevance driven strategy (for example EC, Korea and Taiwan), from broad spectrum of areas (as in U.S., Japan and Germany) to specific strengths. The main difference among countries is the time scale and research area domains that are targeted.
- Training
people is a key component for long-term success.
A main challenge is to educate and train a new generation of
skilled workers with multidisciplinary perspectives necessary for rapid
progress in nanotechnology. The
concepts at the nanoscale (atomic, molecular and supramolecular levels) should penetrate
the education system in the next decade in a similar manner how microscopic
approach made inroads in the last forty-fifty years. Assuming the current level of
instrument purchasing in the world markets (Heaton, 2001), and that trained
people needs will be proportional to those market sizes, then the number of
nanotechnology trained people needed in 2010-2015 would be: 0.8-0.9 million in
the U.S., 0.5-0.6 million in Japan, 0.3-0.4 million in Europe, 0.1-0.2 million
in Asia Pacific region without Japan, and about 0.1 million in other regions.
- There are common scientific
and technical challenges addressing broad humanity goals.
Illustrations of scientific and technical challenges of broad interest are: research focus on a single molecule and operation of single cells (such as those undertaken by the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., and various groups in Germany and Japan), on human performance (not yet clearly addressed), sustainable development and processes in the environment (such as chemical decontamination of soils, water desalinization, solar energy conversion and increase efficiency of lightning). There are attempts to structure the large information explosion on characterization and processing at the nanoscale (Yamaguchi and Komiyama, 2001). Internationally shared R&D projects are expected to expand in the next years.
- A focus on manufacturing at the nanoscale.
There is a need of developing new concepts for new processes, materials and systems, which are suitable to high rate production and scalability (see for example nanoparticle manufacturing aspects, Roco 1997), as well as for internationally certified metrology and standardized tools. A main challenge is not only creating the manufacturing capabilities, but also establishing the market (users) in short and long-term.
- Partnerships: encouraging
interdisciplinarity and integrative activities.
Nanotechnology is overlapping with other research fields, not replacing them. Partnerships between universities, industry, and business are growing within and across national boundaries faster than the R&D activity itself. Industry and business are generally interested in "vertical" transforming of fundamental discoveries into products, while academic activities are generally directed to "horizontal" basic discoveries of relevance to multiple disciplines and areas of application.
- International collaboration accelerates.
This is a manifestation of the expansion of partnerships. International partnerships are particularly suitable for academic research, common R&D objectives, and cost leveraging of expensive facilities and experiments. Virtually all industrialized countries have in development nanotechnology R&D plans at the national level in the recent years, and there are good opportunities for win-win agreements in the precompetitive research areas. Besides bilateral agreements, international organizations are increasing their visibility. Examples are APEC, EC, NAFTA (PASI), global networks provided by professional societies such as ACS, IEEE, ASME, APS and International Union of Materials. An illustration of international interconnection is the increasing proportion of projects with researchers from abroad, of about 10-15 % in 2001, of all projects at two U.S. user networks (for experiments - National Nanofabrication User Network, 1994-continuing; for modeling and simulation - Distributed Center for Advanced Electronics Simulation, 1998-continuing).
Examples of centers and networks primarily supported by government
sources
While single and smaller group investigators do most of the nanoscale R&D, the larger research centers play an essential role in the development of major topics and establishing of partnerships. Centers provide long term coherence, interdisciplinarity, and a meeting place of people with multiple expertise and tools covering the various needs of nanotechnology development. A large proportion of the major nanotechnology centers around the world has been established in the last year. Several illustrations of key research centers are listed below:
- In the U.S.
National Nanofabrication User Network (NNUN):
5 universities, with the lead at the Cornell University
Distributed Center for Advanced Electronics Simulation (DesCArtES):
4 universities with the lead at the University of Illinois - Urbana
Materials Research Science and Technology Centers: distributed through U.S. Engineering Research Centers, components on nanotechnology
Nanobiotechnology Science and Technology Center (Cornell University)
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (6 centers established in 2001)
California NanoSystems Institute (established in 2001)
NASA Nanoscience Centers (3 university based centers established in 2001)
DOE Nanoscience Laboratories (3 national laboratory centers to be
established in 2002)
- Japan
Nanotechnology Research Center, RIKEN (Center established in 2001)
Institute of Nanomaterials, Tohoku University, Sendai
Nanomaterials Laboratory, National Institute of Materials Science, Tsukuba
(established in 2001)
Silicon Nanotechnology Center, Tsukuba (established in 2001)
- EC
European Consortium on Nanomaterials
Network on Nanoelectronics "Phantoms", lead by the Inter-university
Microelectronics Center (IMEC), Liuven, Belgium
- Germany
Network of competency in nanotechnology, 6 centers territorially distributed
Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe
- France
Institute for Micro and Nanotechnologies (MINATECH), Grenoble, France
(established in 2001)
- Sweden
The Nanometer Structure Consortium, Lund
- Switzerland
Nanotechnology Network, coordinated from University of Basel, Switzerland
- Canada
National Institute of nanotechnology (established in 2001)
- Brazil
National Synchrotron Light Laboratory
- China
National Nanotechnology Research Center, Beijing (established in 2001)
- Taiwan
Industrial Technology Research Institute (established in 2001)
- Korea
Nanodevice R&D network
- Russia
Institute of Applied Physics, St. Petersburg
- Australia
CSIRO Nanotechnology Group (established in 2001)
- Romania
Nanotechnology Center, National Institute of Microsystems
Nanostructured Materials Center, National Institute of Physics
- Israel
Group of four academic centers at the Tel Aviv University, Technion University, Hebrew University, and Ben Gurion University (established in 2001)
Closing remarks
Nanotechnology is seen with increased confidence as a key S&T trend in the next decades besides the digital revolution and modern biology. At this moment it is more exploratory than the other two and a condition for maintaining their current progress rates in the future. Nano, bio and information technology areas are expected to grow in strong synergism with cognitive sciences. There is a convergence of sciences in the "nanoworld".
Nanoscale science and engineering R&D is mostly in a precompetitive
phase. International collaboration in
fundamental research, long-term technical challenges, metrology, education and
studies on societal implications will play an important role in the affirmation
and growth of the field. The vision
setting and collaborative model of National Nanotechnology Initiative has
received international acceptance. Most
industrialized countries are establishing or are planning to establish their
national programs. Enhancing communication, networking for exchanges of peoples
and ideas, and developing of R&D partnerships are sought for added value in
research and leveraging.
Priority science and
technology goals may be envisioned for international collaboration in nanoscale
research and education: better comprehension of nature, increasing
productivity, sustainable development, and addressing humanity and civilization
issues.
Acknowledgements
The contribution of the NSTC/NSET members in the development of a vision for nanotechnology research and development in the future is acknowledged. Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of National Science and Technology Council or of the National Science Foundation.
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