UK Nanotechnology Industry Losing Pace - News Item

The UK Government has commissioned a report into micro and nanotechnology that suggests that the UK is losing it’s leading position in the nanotechnology industry.

The study found that the DTI failed to build on an early successful nanotechnology program from the 1980s in order to maintain the UK's prominent position in the field. The commissioning of a strategy report in 2001 by the then Director General of the Research Councils, Dr John Taylor, was a welcome, if belated, attempt to catch up with a commercialisation strategy for nanotechnology. However, the levels of investment planned are insufficient to match those of other major international competitors.

The report also found the DTI's Micro and Nano Technology (MNT) Manufacturing Initiative to be an inadequate response to the Taylor Report and says the £90 million over six years on offer would be better spent on the establishment of one or two nanofabrication facilities.

Posted 9^th April 2004