A Quadrennial Review of the
NATIONAL
NANOTECHNOLOGY
INITIATIVE

Nanoscience, Applications,
and Commercialization

Committee on National Nanotechnology Initiative:
A Quadrennial Review

National Materials and Manufacturing Board

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

A Consensus Study Report of

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu

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This study is based on work supported by Award Number 1842482 with the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-67465-2
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-67465-4
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25729

Cover: Strategies for developing timely and beneficial technologies using nanoscience to help society are as important as ever. This NNI review looks carefully at applications and commercialization of nanoscience and their strategies. In the board game Go, where the strategy one employs is critical, the number of ways that the game can play out is extremely large—some even claim that it is larger than the number of atoms in the universe. The cover depicts the first game won by a computer program over a 9th dan-ranked human player. In the future, it is expected that an ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence will augment human efforts in moving all fields forward. Artist: Erik Svedberg.

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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A Quadrennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative: Nanoscience, Applications, and Commercialization. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25729.

COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE: A QUADRENNIAL REVIEW

LIESL FOLKS, University of Arizona, Chair

HAYDN WADLEY, University of Virginia, Vice Chair

NICHOLAS L. ABBOTT, NAE,¹ Cornell University

OLIVER BRAND, Georgia Institute of Technology

HAROLD CRAIGHEAD, NAE, Cornell University

MARIE D’IORIO, University of Ottawa

TRAVIS EARLES, Lockheed Martin Corporation

GRAHAM R. FLEMING, NAS,² University of California, Berkeley

TERI W. ODOM, Northwestern University

RICARDO RUIZ, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

JO ANNE SHATKIN, Vireo Advisors

MARK TUOMINEN, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Staff

ERIK SVEDBERG, Study Director

JAMES LANCASTER, Director, NMMB and BPA

NEERAJ P. GORKHALY, Associate Program Officer

AMISHA JINANDRA, Research Associate

BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate

JOE PALMER, Program Coordinator

___________________

¹ Member, National Academy of Engineering.

² Member, National Academy of Sciences.

NATIONAL MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING BOARD

THERESA KOTANCHEK, Evolved Analytics, LLC, Chair

KEVIN ANDERSON, NAE,¹ Brunswick Corporation

CRAIG ARNOLD, Princeton University

TERESA CLEMENT, Raytheon Technologies

THOMAS M. DONNELLAN, Applied Research Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University

STEPHEN FORREST, NAS²/NAE, University of Michigan

JULIA GREER, California Institute of Technology

JOHN KLIER, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

DAVID C. LARBALESTIER, NAE, Florida State University

MICK MAHER, Maher & Associates, LLC

ROBERT MILLER, NAE, IBM Almaden Research Center

GREGORY TASSEY, University of Washington

STEVEN J. ZINKLE, NAE, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Staff

JAMES LANCASTER, Director

ERIK SVEDBERG, Senior Program Officer

NEERAJ P. GORKHALY, Associate Program Officer

AMISHA JINANDRA, Research Associate

BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate

JOSEPH PALMER, Senior Project Assistant

___________________

¹ Member, National Academy of Engineering.

² Member, National Academy of Sciences.

Preface

The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to form an ad hoc review committee to conduct a quadrennial review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) pursuant to the 2003 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, Section 5 of Public Law 108-153.1, which authorized the NNI to coordinate the nanotechnology-related research and development (R&D) of 26 federal agencies. The research coordinated by the NNI is highly interdisciplinary, is conducted in an increasingly competitive global arena, and is making transformative impacts in fields as diverse as microelectronics and medicine. The translation of past NNI coordinated work is now making significant contributions to the nation’s high-technology economy, its security, and the health and prosperity of its citizens. The statement of task for the quadrennial review was to analyze the relative position of the U.S. nanotechnology program relative to the programs of other nations, determine whether NNI coordination should continue, and if it should, identify how to improve the NNI’s R&D strategy and R&D portfolio to further enhance the economic prosperity and national security of the United States.

The report that follows shows that the United States maintains a strong nanoscience and technology R&D program. It argues that this program’s coordination is becoming more critical in the current era of intensifying global competition from developed nations such as Japan and those within the European Union, and from developing nations such as India, but especially from China. In the latter case, researchers are witnessing aggressive, and in many cases effective, planning of a national R&D strategy that seeks to harvest the economic, medical, and national

security benefits of nanotechnology as quickly as possible. This, combined with very large investments in state-of-the-art facilities and the allocation of substantial resources for the education/training and attraction of top research international talent, is clearly intended to result in Chinese leadership of this critically important area of technology. This report identifies changes to the NNI to promote a resurgence of the nation’s nanotechnology program and enable it to respond to the dynamic changes of the new global research environment in which it functions.

The committee thanks the review committee members for dedicating their remarkable technical expertise and experience to the task that was assigned to them. In executing its charge, the committee met five times between March 14, 2019, and November 7, 2019. The committee is also grateful to the many people and organizations that have provided the information needed to compile this report. The committee heard from a broad spectrum of speakers from government, industry, consultant organizations, nonprofit trade organizations, and academia. In particular, the committee thanks the following individuals for their contributions to this study and participation in the committee’s meetings: Lisa Friedersdorf, NNCO; Lloyd Whitman, NIST; Mihail C. Roco, NSF; Stephanie Morris, NIH; Anil Patri, FDA; Michael A. Meador, NASA; Hongda Chen, USDA NIFA; Khershed Cooper, NSF; Paul Westerhoff, Arizona State University; Yan Borodovsky, retired; Hilary Godwin, University of Washington; Nathan S. Lewis, California Institute of Technology; Andre Nel, UCLA; Peter Dröll, Germany; Antti J. Makinen, CIV USN CNR; James Alexander Liddle, NIST; World Nieh, USDA; Alan Rudie, USDA; Samuel Brauer, Nanotech Plus, LLC; Celia Merzbacher, SRI; Treye A. Thomas, U.S. CPSC Office of Hazard Identification and Reduction; Peidong Yang, Berkeley; Matthew Hull, Virginia Tech; Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University; Matt Laudon, TechConnect; Orin Herskowitz, Columbia Technology Ventures; Waguih Ishak, Corning; and Emilie J. Siochi, NASA.

The committee also thanks the director of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board, James Lancaster, and the study director, Erik Svedberg, for their help and guidance in performing this quadrennial review. We also express special appreciation to staff members Joe Palmer, Amisha Jinandra, and Neeraj Gorkhaly for assistance with meeting arrangements and all the daily tasks.

Liesl Folks, Chair
Haydn Wadley, Vice Chair

Acknowledgment of Reviewers

This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.

We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review

___________________

¹ Member, National Academy of Engineering.

² Member, National Academy of Sciences.

of this report was overseen by Martin A. Philbert, NAM,³ University of Michigan. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.

Every member of the committee made heroic efforts to complete this task. Erik Svedberg provided guidance and management and we also appreciate such from Jim Lancaster.

___________________

³ Member, National Academy of Medicine.

Contents

SUMMARY

1 INTRODUCTION

What Is “Nanotechnology” and Why Is It of Pervasive Interest?

The NNI Framework

The Evolving Global Environment

2 THE U.S. NANOTECHNOLOGY R&D ECOSYSTEM

The NNI Program Component Areas

Overall Assessment of Value of the PCAs

Concluding Remarks on the U.S. Nanotechnology R&D Ecosystem

3 A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

The Global Nanotechnology R&D Ecosystem

Concluding Remarks on the Global Nanotechnology R&D Ecosystem

4 FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Strategic Alignment with National Priorities

Commercialization of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology Infrastructure

Workforce Development: Global View on Competitiveness

Structure and Management

APPENDIXES

A Statement of Task

B Committee Biographical Information

C Acronyms