United States: World leader in Nanotechnology

14 February 2007

No doubt that the United States is the world leader in nanotechnology and has produced the highest publications and patents. The government agencies are involved in popularizing the nanotechnology and addressing the societal and ethical issues and at the same time also focuses on the development and commercialization of nanotechnology.

The various departments in US government ha made contributions in National Nanotechnology initiatives and according to an estimate in the year 2005 more than $1000 million has been spent on nanotechnology initiatives. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has invested around $ 350 million alone. The investment contribution in nanotechnology initiatives from the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy is around $ 250 M and $ 200 M respectively. The other big investors in nanotechnology are National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Aeronautics and Space Applications (NASA).

The US government’s aim is to provide excellent research and development facilities and maintain the high research outputs such as technologies, publications and patents. The goal of these high research output technologies should provide public benefits and should create more jobs and the technology should be translated into useful commercial products. The government also focuses on developing educational infrastructure and resources to support future workforce demand of the industries.

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