The NNI Strategy Portal – A Pathway to New Ideas for Nanotechnology Innovation

OSTP announced the NNI Strategy Portal this week at the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Strategic Planning Stakeholder Workshop. The online event taking place July 13 – August 15 at the NNI Strategy Portal is another example of the Administration’s commitment to transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration. Your engagement will help the Federal government in the development of the 2010 Strategic Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which is an important tool to outline the priorities of the initiative and identify how the NNI can achieve the vision of a “future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to a revolution in technology and industry that benefits society.”

President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation highlights the promise of nanotechnology to transform multiple industries: capturing and storing clean energy, developing next-generation computer chips, early detection of diseases, smart anti-cancer therapeutics that deliver drugs only to tumor cells, and enabling all-new approaches to a wide range of manufacturing activities, among many other examples. While the commercial impact of nanotechnology to date has been limited primarily to nanomaterials applied to a range of consumer goods from healthcare to textiles, automotive composites and industrial coatings, nanotechnology innovation is poised to accelerate dramatically. Among the most compelling recent examples are solar cells leveraging nanotechnology to increase efficiency and reduce costs and bullet-proof, flexible carbon nanotube-based armor.

The ten-year history of U.S. leadership in fundamental nanotechnology research and development under the NNI has laid the crucial groundwork for developing commercial applications and scaling up production, creating demand for many new nanotechnology and manufacturing jobs in the near-term.

Furthermore, our investments in nanotechnology research and development have also positioned us to address key national priorities, spur the formation of multidisciplinary teams of researcher and multi-sector collaborators, bring new expertise to bear on important problems, strengthen the “social contract” between science and society, and inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Please take the time to register and join the community at strategy.nano.gov so you can post your responses to the NNI questions and comment on others’ ideas. I am hopeful that when we tap into the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, we will strengthen our democracy and help improve the lives of everyday Americans. Thanks for participating.

Aneesh Chopra is U.S. Chief Technology Officer