Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Technologists and policy makers call for global collaboration on nanotechnology

Home > Press > Technologists and policy makers call for global collaboration on nanotechnology

Abstract:
About 250 technologists and policy makers from around the globe meet this week in Brussels, Belgium, at INC3, the third international nanotechnology conference on communication and cooperation, to discuss the latest developments in nanotechnology, the challenges and bottlenecks, and the economic and societal implications. The need for collaboration involving industry, academia, society stakeholders, governments and financial institutions at world-wide level will be presented in technology and economic presentations.

Technologists and policy makers call for global collaboration on nanotechnology

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM | Posted on April 18th, 2007

Already, state-of-the-art nanotechnology-based products reflect the
significant benefits at societal and individual levels that can be expected
from future nanotechnology developments. New or better performing goods and
services are emerging in electronics, healthcare, chemistry and materials
sciences, to name a few.

New production routes are being designed towards the target of zero waste
and zero emissions. The presentations emphasize that the
multi-disciplinary skills and tasks needed for further nanotechnology
innovations exceed the resources and capabilities of any single company,
nation or region.

Collaboration among government, industry, and academia in a broad
cross-section of fields is essential for the creation and development of
nanotechnology-based business.

Within the area of semiconductor technology, scaling to minimum feature
sizes on the order of five nanometers may be possible, but a rapid increase
in innovations in device and interconnect materials, processes, and
structures will be required. The use of several new and exciting
nanomaterials will be explained. New system functionalities and better
system performance will be presented based on micro- and
nano-electromechanical systems. All of these inventions result in new
applications such as extremely dense storage devices, novel high-capacity
computation techniques, ultra-sensitive biosensors etc.

Nanophotonics will have the highest impact on optical communications and
biomedical applications. Silicon-based photonics will be able to alleviate
the foreseeable capacity bottleneck in data communications, by shifting the
processing from the electronic to the optical domain. Fast integrated
photonic circuits are expected to dramatically reduce the financial burden
of the healthcare in an ageing society by applications such as optical
processing (e.g. biosensors) for medical diagnosis.

In the "Bridge to bio" session, medical applications are being shown to
compose one of the fastest growing sectors of the semiconductor industry.
New therapeutic and diagnostic instrumentation based on interfacing brain
neurons with electronics, and new and affordable medical devices such as
biosensors, enzyme immunoassays, controlled drug delivery, gene therapy,
and tissue engineering will be presented. The presentations reflect the
enormous potential emerging from the convergence of semiconductor
nanofabrication, biology, medicine, and electronics.

On Wednesday April 18, Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Laureate in
chemistry in 1987, will present the keynote on the self-organization
approach of nanoscience and nanotechnology. He will discuss the spontaneous
but controlled generation of well-defined, functional molecular and
supramolecular architectures of nanometric size through self-organization.
This very advanced technology offers a powerful alternative to
nanofabrication and to nanomanipulation for the development of functional
nanostructures.

INC3 also addresses the economic and societal impact of nanotechnology. An
economic boost is foreseen. The nanotechnology market is expected to exceed
the current information technology and telecommunications market within
seven years and holds great promises for emerging and developing economies.
INC3 will show that several actions need to be taken in order to guarantee
this economical boost. New jobs with an increased demand for
interdisciplinary skills will need to be created, sometimes challenging
traditional education and training approaches. To cope with the risks and
complexity of developing completely new nanotechnology-based products and
to investigate the social impact of these developments, collaboration at a
global scale will be necessary at all levels.

####

About INC3
NOTE TO EDITORS: SESSION SUMMARIES ARE AVAILABLE BY CONTACTING BARBARA
KALKIS at

INC3 CONFERENCE TESTIMONIALS

USA
Dr. Mihail C. Roco - Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, National Science
Foundation, and key architect of the U.S. National Nanotechnology
Initiative
Dr. Paolo A. Gargini - Intel Fellow, Technology and Manufacturing Group -
Director, Technology Strategy, INTEL CORPORATION
Dr. Ralph Cavin - Vice President for Research Operations, Semiconductor
Research Corporation

The transition from science to engineering and subsequent commercialization
of new technologies brought economic prosperity to many countries in the
previous century. It is now time for another round of invention and
engineering to generate a new breed of technologies that will sustain
economic growth and social enrichment in the 21st century. This task
exceeds the resources and capabilities of any single company, nation or
region.

INC3 provides a unique forum for an overview from government, industry and
academia of the progress in this scientific renaissance and technology
integration highlighting, at present, nanotechnology as it is occurring in
most regions of the world. It is our wish that INC3 will provide the
starting point for further worldwide cooperation.

Japan
Mr. Hajime Sasaki - Chairman of the Nanotechnology Business Creation
Initiative (NBCI) and Chairman of the Board, NEC Corporation

Collaboration among government, industry, and academia in a broad
cross-section of fields is essential for the creation and development of
nanotechnology-based business. The 3rd International Nanotechnology
Conference (INC3), which is being organized by related parties from Japan,
the United States, and Europe, provides the latest information on
nanotechnology and presents an opportunity to exchange opinions for
practical collaboration.

Dr. Kazuharu Shimizu - Deputy Director General Bureau of Science and
Technology Policy, Cabinet Office

Nanotechnology has a great potential to promote the advancement of various
field of science and technology such as biotechnology, material science and
electronics, and consequently leads a remarkable benefit and progress to
the society.
The International Nanotechnology Conference on Communication and
Cooperation is playing an important role to bridge Industry, Academia and
Government internationally.

Prof. Kenjiro Oura - Professor, Research Center for Ultra High Voltage
Electron Microscopy, Osaka University, Professor Emeritus at Osaka
University, President of Japan Society of Applied Physics

Cooperation and communication between industry and academia together with
government are necessary for future developments of nanotechnologies.
For researchers engaged or interested in nanotechnologies, INC3 is one of
the key events to attend in order to stay informed of the developments in
major research programs worldwide.

Europe
Patrick Dewilde - Chairman of ENIAC's Scientific Community Council

The European Scientific Community in Nanoelectronics has formed a Council
to charter, support and participate in the main European efforts to create
the new generations of technology in this field that is quickly moving not
only in the direction of much smaller, nano-scale features, but also in the
direction of heterogeneous integration and the resulting much greater
functional flexibility. It underwrites the goals of INC3 and hopes to
contribute not only to the conference, but also to the generation of new
ideas and their implementation in viable, beneficial products.

Dirk Beernaert - European Commission: Directorate General for Information
Society and Media.
Renzo Tomellini - European Commission: Directorate General for Research.

Innovation is the motor which drives economic progress worldwide, assuring
social progress and political stability. Nanoelectronics, nanotechnology
and converging technology form the basis of the next wave of innovation to
come. Evolving from the computer, communication and consumer industry,
nanoelectronics-based miniaturized systems are expected to increasingly
influence the everyday life of all people, young or old, rich or poor. By
mixing the competences of different scientific and technological fields,
nanotechnology and converging technologies offer an unprecedented
possibility for new ideas and totally new products. Together these
technologies provide the foundations for future growth in the semiconductor
industry and for designing innovation in many different application fields.

However, the fact that the task and challenges are so vast, coupled with
the risk of not reaching high expectations, means that a more strategic,
more coordinated and more cooperative approach involving industry,
academia, civil society, governments and financing at world-wide level is
not only desirable but urgently necessary. INC3 offers a valuable platform
for the different actors to present progress, to provide a forum for debate
and to plan practical cooperation and collaboration.

Dr.Wolfgang Ziebart - CEO Infineon Technologies and Chairman of the ENIAC
Steering Board

Worldwide, the need for clever systems is growing, which help citizens to
guarantee mobility, access broadband communications everywhere, increase
safety in transportation and at home, improve healthcare and - at the same
time - to use energy more efficiently in order to protect the environment.
All those systems have to be powerful in performance, simple to be used, as
small as possible and affordable for the masses. The only possibility to
fulfill all these requirements also in the future, is the ongoing
development of the main technology, enabling all these properties, which is
Nanotechnology, especially Nanoelectronics. The effort to continuously
develop and innovate is always increasing and asks for more and more
co-operation between companies, between industries and the scientific world
and between entire regions of the world. The INC3 conference offers a
unique opportunity to learn about others and to establish contact.