The project
 

Nanotechnology is the new challenge for the research community and industry alike and it refers to the ability to understand, observe and control the properties of matter on the length from 1 to 100 nanometres. One nano-metre (one billionth of meter) is perhaps the size of a small molecule.

Nanotechnology is often described as the new technological revolution and though its products are yet scarce its potential is considered immense with profound effects in practically all aspects of the economy and society.

Current applications exploit existing knowledge to obtain incremental advantages respect existing products, but in the medium and long term greatly improved or even entirely new applications are expected to emerge opening new opportunities for growth and wealth creation, giving also an essential contribution to cope with the global and environmental challenges.

NanoRoadMap (NRM) is a project founded by the European Commission in the FP6 (Thematic Priority 3) and its main objective is to produce a long term (10 years) forecasting exercise aiming to highlight the applications of nanotechnology in three important industrial fields:

materials
health and medical services
energy

The project has started in January 2004 and will be completed in 24 months (December 2005). It will monitor progress and discuss tendencies in the above fields to produce roadmaps that will highlight drivers of change, scientific and technical challenges, roadblocks and opportunities, strengths and weaknesses, needs for funding and infrastructures relevant for research and application of nanotechnology.

The knowledge gathered will help the European players (research organisations, public agencies, industries, policy makers and legislators, planners) to optimise and better address their efforts in these areas in the coming years.
The impact of NRM will be in line with the substantial investment made:
  • the quality, dissemination level and usability of the roadmaps produced will have a noticeable effect on the alignment of decision making throughout Europe;
  • the identification of nanotechnology related opportunities will be made easier for the enterprises, in particular for SMEs;
  • the funds invested for nanotechnology in FP6 and, most of all, those in a future FP7 can be addressed to give a maximum contribution to increase European Society prosperity.
The project will in fact contribute to:
  • increase the awareness within the EU in the field of nanotechnology leading to an increase of its competitive position and market share;
  • promote the improvement of R&D project selection;
  • provide a better focus for educational training in nanotechnology;
  • favour national and trans-national co-operation;
  • favour a more sustainable growth enhancing the quality of the life across the EU.

The Nanoroadmap Consortium, has the experience and the capabilities to attain successfully the goals of the project.

It consists of organisations active in nanotechnology with a presence in some of the most important EU countries (Italy, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, the Czech Republic) and Israel, that have all a long history in disseminating information, contacting research institutions and industries, both large and SMEs and in assisting them in their quest for innovation.

A key feature of the project is its 2-step approach.

First, with a thorough survey of the available information a general report is prepared for each of the three sectors that offer a consolidation of the activity going on in Europe and in other parts of the world, as well as an assessment of the existing roadmaps and forecasts.

Second, basing on the above picture and to avoid that the roadmaps become too general, the topics that are deemed of the highest priority in each of the three fields are selected. The raodmapping exercise will focus on them.

Dissemination, discussion and feedback of the results is a crucial part of the project. Various instruments are used for this activity throughout its life and information days play a pivotal role.

One National Symposium will be organised in each country of the Consortium at the end of the project to illustrate the conclusive results, but also two International Conferences are planned. One, after 10 months from the start to present the results of the assessment of the existing situation, the resulting general framework and the future project activity with the participation of outstanding representatives of industry and academia. Another, close to the end of the project, to illustrate and discuss the draft of the roadmaps in detail to a large international audience.