WASHINGTON – While America has been at the forefront of nanotechnology for more than a decade, other countries are rapidly catching up and the U.S economy could suffer if America’s frontrunner status is not preserved, a top nanotechnology expert told Congress on Thursday.
Testifying before a Senate science subcommittee, Chad Mirkin, director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University, said the United States is positioned to make “extraordinary strides” in nanotechnology over the next decade, but cautioned that America is not alone.
The committee is considering a bill to reauthorize the National Nanotechnology Initiative, created in 2000. The NNI program coordinates more than a dozen federal agencies involved in nanotechnology funding and research.
Countries all of the world, including China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Germany, are building efforts to rival NNI, Mirkin warned
“If the United States does not act now and aggressively pursue the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, we will lose our position as the global leader in this transformative field,” he said. “Moreover, we will lose the opportunities it can afford us to build our economy and new manufacturing base.”
Sen. John Rockefeller, Democratic chairman of the Commerce Committee, said he believes nanotechnology will play a key role in boosting the economy and creating jobs.
“There are significant economic and societal incentives to maintain our lead in this field,” Rockefeller said. “The global market for nanotechnology-related products was more than $200 billion in 2009, and projections suggesting that it will reach $1 trillion by 2015.”
“It has the potential to transform almost every aspect of our lives by providing rapid routes to addressing some of the most pressing problems in health care, electronics, energy and the environment,” Mirkin said.
Sen. Kay Hutchinson, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said the U.S. led in nanotech over the last decade thanks to research and development tax cuts. She said the tax cuts should be made permanent to take away the uncertainty of biennial renewals and capitalize on existing growth in the field.
“Every two years we have to reauthorize R and D tax cuts. One thing we should do out of this committee is to make those cuts permanent,” Hutchison said.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., endorsed making research and development tax cuts permanent.
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, director of the West Virginia Nano Initiative and professor of physics at West Virginia University, testified that reauthorizing NNI is critical, but also complicated. She also stressed the need for increased understanding of nanotechnology.
“Perhaps most importantly, we need to educate lawyers and businesspeople, elected officials, regulatory officers and venture capitalists about the realities of nanotechnology, especially as they pertain to specialized sectors of the economy like energy, health and the environment,” Pelecky testified.
According to Thomas O’Neal, associate vice president for research and commercialization at the University of Central Florida, nanotechnology needs more funding.
“We need angel investors to engage at higher levels so [the United States] can dominate,” O’Neal told MarketWatch. “We also need to get patents more quickly.”
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Science and Space Subcommittee, agreed with O’Neal.
“Patent law helps commercialize nanotechnology research,” Nelson said. “We need to keep funding innovation.”