National Nanotechnology Initiative

Last updated

NNI's 2014 enacted budget by agency. [1]

   NIH – $441.5M (28.7%)
   NSF – $410.6M (26.7%)
   Energy – $303.3M (19.7%)
   Defense – $175.9M (11.4%)
   NIST — $97.8M (6.4%)
   Homeland Security – $24.0M (1.6%)
   Agriculture – $19.1M (1.2%)
   NASA – $17.9M (1.2%)
   FDA – $17.0M (1.1%)
   EPA – $15.5M (1.0%)
  Other (0.99999999999999%)

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a research and development initiative which provides a framework to coordinate nanoscale research and resources among United States federal government agencies and departments.

Contents

History

Mihail C. Roco proposed the initiative in a 1999 presentation to the White House under the Clinton administration. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The NNI was officially launched in 2000 and received funding for the first time in FY2001. [8]

President Bill Clinton advocated nanotechnology development. In a 21 January 2000 speech at the California Institute of Technology, Clinton stated that "Some of our research goals may take twenty or more years to achieve, but that is precisely why there is an important role for the federal government."

President George W. Bush further increased funding for nanotechnology. On 3 December 2003 Bush signed into law the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act (Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  108–153 (text) (PDF)), which authorizes expenditures for five of the participating agencies totaling $3.63 billion over four years.. This law is an authorization, not an appropriation, and subsequent appropriations for these five agencies have not met the goals set out in the 2003 Act. However, there are many agencies involved in the Initiative that are not covered by the Act, and requested budgets under the Initiative for all participating agencies in Fiscal Years 2006 – 2015 totaled over $1 billion each.

In February 2014, the National Nanotechnology Initiative released a Strategic Plan outlining updated goals and "program component areas" ," as required under the terms of the Act. This document supersedes the NNI Strategic Plans released in 2004 and 2007.

The NNI's budget supplement proposed by the Obama administration for Fiscal Year 2015 provides $1.5 billion in requested funding. The cumulative NNI investment since fiscal year 2001, including the 2015 request, totals almost $21 billion. Cumulative investments in nanotechnology-related environmental, health, and safety research since 2005 to 2015 total nearly $900 million. The Federal agencies with the largest investments are the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. [9]

The NNI received increased support for emerging technologies during the Trump administration and a special focus on clean energy and mitigating climate change during the Biden administration. NNI cumulative investment by 2023 inclusive reached $40 billion, and nanotechnology has become pervasive in material, energy and biosystem related discoveries and applications [7] (https://www.tvworldwide.net/NNI-Retrospective/VideoId/2111/nni-retrospective-video-creating-a-national-initiative-trailer-3-min).

Goals

The four primary goals of NNI are: [10]

  1. Advance a world-class nanotechnology research and development program;
  2. Foster the transfer of new technologies into products for commercial and public benefits;
  3. Develop and sustain educational resources, a skilled workforce, and a dynamic infrastructure and toolset to advance nanotechnology;
  4. Support responsible development of nanotechnology.

Initiatives

Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives

Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives (NSIs) spotlight areas of nanotechnology where significant advances in nanoscale science and technology can be made with the focus and cooperation of participating agencies. NSIs accelerate research, development, and application of nanotechnology in these critical areas. [11]

As of December 2020, the current NSIs are: [11]

NSIs are dynamic and are retired as they achieve their specified goals or develop an established community they no longer require the spotlight provided as a NSI. Retired NSIs are: [11]

Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenges

A nanotechnology-inspired grand challenge (GC) is an ambitious goal that utilizes nanotechnology and nanoscience to solve national and global issues. The first and current GC was announced in October 2015 after receiving input and suggestions from the public. As of December 2020, the grand challenge is: [12]

Participating Federal Agencies and Departments

Departments and agencies with nanotechnology R&D budgets:

Other participating departments and agencies:

Results and Effects

Only a very small number of studies attempted to evaluate the effects of the NNI objectively. A multi-nationation study between the US and the Netherlands published in 2023, looked at the result of patent filing, issuance and mainteance since the NNI was launched in 2010 until 2023, when there last data were available. [13]

US-invented nanopatents with US assignees, were somewhat more apt to renew at least once (14.5% vs. 11.7%) compared to the US -assignees on average, but somewhat less inclined to pay for full maintenance of 20 years from filing (40.5% vs. 52.5%). The lower propensity to renew could be attributed to a quickly changing technology-landcape. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanotechnology</span> Field of science involving control of matter on atomic and (supra)molecular scales

Nanotechnology was defined by the National Nanotechnology Initiative as the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing properties of matter. The definition of nanotechnology is inclusive of all types of research and technologies that deal with these special properties. It is therefore common to see the plural form "nanotechnologies" as well as "nanoscale technologies" to refer to the broad range of research and applications whose common trait is size. An earlier description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Science Foundation</span> United States government agency

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about $8.3 billion, the NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Nanoscale Materials</span>

The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers the United States Department of Energy sponsors. The Center is at Argonne National Laboratory location in Lemont, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Department of Energy National Laboratories</span> Laboratories owned by the United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers is a system of laboratories overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for scientific and technological research. The primary mission of the DOE national laboratories is to conduct research and development (R&D) addressing national priorities: energy and climate, the environment, national security, and health. Sixteen of the seventeen DOE national laboratories are federally funded research and development centers administered, managed, operated and staffed by private-sector organizations under management and operating (M&O) contracts with the DOE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanorobotics</span> Emerging technology field

Nanoid robotics, or for short, nanorobotics or nanobotics, is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots whose components are at or near the scale of a nanometer. More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots with devices ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. The terms nanobot, nanoid, nanite, nanomachine and nanomite have also been used to describe such devices currently under research and development.

Nanomanufacturing is both the production of nanoscaled materials, which can be powders or fluids, and the manufacturing of parts "bottom up" from nanoscaled materials or "top down" in smallest steps for high precision, used in several technologies such as laser ablation, etching and others. Nanomanufacturing differs from molecular manufacturing, which is the manufacture of complex, nanoscale structures by means of nonbiological mechanosynthesis.

The history of nanotechnology traces the development of the concepts and experimental work falling under the broad category of nanotechnology. Although nanotechnology is a relatively recent development in scientific research, the development of its central concepts happened over a longer period of time. The emergence of nanotechnology in the 1980s was caused by the convergence of experimental advances such as the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, with the elucidation and popularization of a conceptual framework for the goals of nanotechnology beginning with the 1986 publication of the book Engines of Creation. The field was subject to growing public awareness and controversy in the early 2000s, with prominent debates about both its potential implications as well as the feasibility of the applications envisioned by advocates of molecular nanotechnology, and with governments moving to promote and fund research into nanotechnology. The early 2000s also saw the beginnings of commercial applications of nanotechnology, although these were limited to bulk applications of nanomaterials rather than the transformative applications envisioned by the field.

The impact of nanotechnology extends from its medical, ethical, mental, legal and environmental applications, to fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, computing, materials science, and communications.

Green nanotechnology refers to the use of nanotechnology to enhance the environmental sustainability of processes producing negative externalities. It also refers to the use of the products of nanotechnology to enhance sustainability. It includes making green nano-products and using nano-products in support of sustainability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mihail Roco</span>

Mihail C. Roco is the founding chair of the US National Science and Technology Council subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET), and is Senior Advisor for Science and Engineering, including Nanotechnology, at the National Science Foundation. He is also the editor in chief of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California NanoSystems Institute</span> American integrated research center

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated research center operating jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. Its missions are to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology; train the next generation of scientists, educators and technology leaders; and facilitate partnerships with industry, fueling economic development and the social well-being of California, the United States and the world.

The societal impact of nanotechnology are the potential benefits and challenges that the introduction of novel nanotechnological devices and materials may hold for society and human interaction. The term is sometimes expanded to also include nanotechnology's health and environmental impact, but this article will only consider the social and political impact of nanotechnology.

The College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering is part of the University at Albany, SUNY in Albany, New York. Founded in 2004 at the University at Albany, SUNY, the college underwent rapid expansion in the late-2000s and early-2010s before merging with the SUNY Institute of Technology in 2014. The college rejoined the University at Albany in 2023. The college was the first college in the United States devoted to nanotechnology.

Indian Institute of Nano Science & Technology (IINSc) is a research institution that teaches nano science and technology. It is located in Bangalore, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Networking and Information Technology Research and Development</span> NiTRD

The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program consists of a group of U.S. federal agencies to research and develop information technology (IT) capabilities to empower Federal missions; support U.S. science, engineering, and technology leadership; and bolster U.S. economic competitiveness.

The International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) was established by Northwestern University in 2000. It was the first institute of its kind in the United States and is one of the premier nanoscience research centers in the world. Today, the IIN represents and unites more than $1 billion in nanotechnology research, educational programs, and supporting infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanotechnology in warfare</span> Branch of nanoscience

Nanotechnology in warfare is a branch of nano-science in which molecular systems are designed, produced and created to fit a nano-scale (1-100 nm). The application of such technology, specifically in the area of warfare and defence, has paved the way for future research in the context of weaponisation. Nanotechnology unites a variety of scientific fields including material science, chemistry, physics, biology and engineering.

Convergence research aims to solve complex problems employing transdisciplinarity. While academic disciplines are useful for identifying and conveying coherent bodies of knowledge, some problems require collaboration among disciplines, including both enhanced understanding of scientific phenomena as well as resolving social issues. The two defining characteristics of convergence research include: 1) the nature of the problem, and 2) the collaboration among disciplines.

References

  1. ↑ "National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI): Supplement to the President's FY 2015 Budget" (PDF). Office of Science and Technology Policy. March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Dr. Mihail C. Roco: Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, National Science Foundation Archived 11 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine at NSF Directorate of Engineering website
  3. ↑ M.C. Roco, R.S. Williams, and P. Alivisatos. Nanotechnology Research Directions: Vision for Nanotechnology R&D in the Next Decade. National Science and Technology Council, White House 1999, reprinted Springer 2000, http://www.nano.gov/sites/default/files/pub_resource/research_directions_1999.pdf
  4. ↑ Roco, M.C. The long view of nanotechnology development: the National Nanotechnology Initiative at 10 years. J Nanopart Res 13, 427–445 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-010-0192-z
  5. ↑ M.C. Roco, C.A. Mirkin, and M.C. Hersam. Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020: Retrospective and Outlook, Springer 2011, https://www.nano.gov/node/948
  6. ↑ M.C. Roco, W.S. Bainbridge, B. Tonn, and G. Whitesides. Convergence of Knowledge, Technology, and Society: Beyond Convergence of NANO-BIO-INFO-COGNITIVE Technologies, Springer, 2013, http://www.wtec.org/NBIC2-Report/
  7. 1 2 M.C. Roco, National Nanotechnology Initiative at 20 years: enabling new horizons. J Nanopart Res 25, 197 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-023-05829-9
  8. ↑ "Nanotechnology Timeline | nano.gov". www.nano.gov. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  9. ↑ NNI Supplement to the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2015
  10. ↑ "NNI Vision, Goals, and PCAs | nano.gov". www.nano.gov. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 "Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives (NSIs) | nano.gov". www.nano.gov. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  12. ↑ "Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenges | nano.gov". www.nano.gov. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  13. 1 2 Twenty years of US nanopatenting: Maintenance renewal scoring as an indicator of patent value. 2023. World Pat Inf. 73/13. A.L. Porter, M. Markley, R. Snead, N.C. Newman. doi: 10.1016/j.wpi.2023.102178
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