NATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE - LEADING TO THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The President’s budget proposes a “National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)— Leading to the Next Industrial Revolution,” as part of the Ž scal year (FY) 2001 Federal budget. The initiative will support long-term nanoscale research and development leading to potential breakthroughs in areas such as materials and manufacturing, nanoelectronics, medicine and healthcare, environment and energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, biotechnology and agriculture, computation and information technology, and national security. The impact of nanotechnology on the health, wealth, and lives of people could be at least as signiŽ cant as the combined in uences of microelectronics, medical imaging, computer-aided engineering, and man-made polymers developed in this century. The proposed level of additional annual funding for FY 2001 nearly doubles the current level of effort of $270 million in FY 2000. The NNI incorporates fundamental research, Grand Challenges, centers and networks of excellence, research infrastructure that are high risk, high payoff, and broadly enabling. This initiative also addresses development of a balanced infrastructure, novel approaches to the education and training of future nanotechnology workers, the ethical, legal, and social implications of nanotechnology, and rapid transfer of knowledge and technology gained from the research and development efforts. The interplay between fundamental research and technology development will be supported for synergistic results. The National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology’s Interagency Working Group on Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology (IWGN) prepared a few publications, as listed in Appendix C, that form the foundation for the evolution of the NNI. The President’s Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) established a PCAST Nanotechnology Panel comprised of leading experts from academia and industry to provide a technical and budgetary review of the NNI which is detailed in this document. Upon review of this initiative, PCAST strongly endorsed the establishment of the NNI, beginning in Fiscal Year 2001, saying that “now is the time to act.” In PCAST’s December 14, 1999, letter to President Clinton, PCAST described the NNI as a top Administration Priority and an excellent multi-agency framework to ensure U.S. leadership in this emerging Ž eld that will be essential for economic and national security leadership in the Ž rst half of the next century. PCAST’s endorsement to the President is attached in Appendix D for your review. The Administration is currently evaluating the mechanisms to establish a coordination ofŽ ce that would support the NNI and an external review board of experts that would annually monitor the NNI goals. These issues will be detailed in an implementation plan to be published later this Spring.