EU lends its weight to nanotech push

The report, entitled Towards a European strategy for nanotechnology​, provides a series of recommendations and initiatives on how to strengthen European research and development (R&D) in the field, held up as a new source of therapies for diseases, improved computer chips and new high-performance materials.

The market for such products and processes is estimated to be around €2.5 billion today worldwide, according to the EC. However, analysts predict it could be worth hundreds of billions of euros by 2010, later exceeding €1 trillion.

The EU has an excellent knowledge base, with 32 per cent of international nanotechnology publications in 1997-1999, compared to 24 per cent in the US and 12 per cent in Japan. But Europe is now investing proportionately less than its main competitors, according to the Commission.

"Both the US and Japan invest more per capita in nanotechnology and this gap is expected to widen in the next few years if Europe does not take appropriate initiatives,"​ it said in a statement.

The EC said that nanotech applications include atom-scale 'nano-robots' that can be injected in the human body to cure diseases, novel drug delivery materials, electronic nano-chips that can store and process much more information than today's microchips, nano-fibres for better and always-clean clothes, and nano-materials to improve the coatings of aircraft and spaceships.

One of the crucial differences between the EU and its main competitors is that the latter have co-ordinated or centralised nanotechnology R&D programmes, commented European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin. So one objective detailed in the report is to improve the co-ordination of national research programmes in Europe.

The Commission is also hoping to engender collaborations between public and private research groups; set up 'poles of excellence' - hot spots of nanotech science that will bring researchers together; promote education and training for research personnel with a strong emphasis on an entrepreneurial mindset; and ensure favourable conditions for technology transfer and industrial innovation, including appropriate financial mechanisms and the development of common standards.

Central R&D funding to double​

The report recommends that overall public EU investment in nanotechnology R&D should triple by 2010 to maintain and strengthen its position in respect to its main competitors. The EU 6th Research Framework Programme (2002-2006) devotes €1.3 billion to nanotechnology and new materials, and the Commission aims to step up this effort in the broader context of the proposed doubling of EU research budget in the 2007-2013 period.

For further information please visit http://www.cordis.lu/nanotechnology/​.