Investing in nanotechnology

Summary form only given. Nanotechnology is currently the focus of much investment in the USA and worldwide. In the USA, the federal government has an initiated a broad and ambitious program entitled the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). It is important to realize that the NNI involves almost all the various US government agencies that are involved in sponsoring basic research and development. The NNI can be viewed as an umbrella for funding research at the forefront of fields across the hard and soft sciences. It should also be noted that the significant budgets now being dedicated to the NNI are not all ´new´ money. In many cases, they represent a redirection of existing budget lines. In addition to this federal program, there are a number of equally ambitious state based programs sponsoring nanotechnology. The California investment is perhaps the most visible and includes the creation of the California Nanosystems Institute. Other states have adopted a similar strategy of leveraging their own investment by attracting federal and private funding. A significant fraction of these state investments is going into bricks and mortar and can perhaps best be viewed as a way to boost investment in the infrastructure of university based research. Ultimately, it is believed that the current US investment in nanotechnology will be beneficial to the economic prosperity of the USA. Interestingly, venture capital firms are investing in nanotechnology start-ups. This comes at a time when venture capital financing has dropped dramatically from the last few years. It seems certain that the range of products and applications will be as diverse as the current nanotechnology investment.