After five years of research and more than $4 billion in federal spending, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has given the US the global lead in the emerging field of nanoscience, but other countries are “aggressively chasing” US leadership with both broad and focused research programs. That assessment is from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in the first in-depth review of the government’s effort to coordinate the many research disciplines and federal agencies involved in nanotechnology.
Annual federal spending on nanotechnology is about $1 billion, with more than 20 different agencies receiving NNI money, according to the PCAST report. That $1 billion represents about one-quarter of the current nanotechnology spending by governments in all nations.
When state and private nanotechnology spending are added to the federal number, total US R&D spending stands at $3 billion annually, one-third of the global spending of about $9 billion....
