Ireland can be big player in nanotech sector

A NEW report says Ireland could become an international player in nanotechnology research.

A special committee has been announced to implement the report’s findings and to help find ways to benefit from the State’s €282 million research investment in the sector.

Government advisers Forfas put together the report, Ireland’s Nanotechnology commercialisation Framework 2010-2014, with international consultants Lux Research, after a request from the Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation.

The study examined ways to exploit the high level of investment in the sector as a way to help attract more foreign direct investment and encourage indigenous enterprise, the report states.

Minister of State for Science and Innovation Conor Lenihan welcomed the report on its release yesterday.

He also announced the creation of a co-ordinating group to push forward the report’s findings as quickly as possible. This would be made up of industrialists, academics and enterprise development agencies.

The term nanotechnology involves research into new materials and the creation of devices measuring down to millionths of a millimetre across. It can be applied in a wide range of areas.

There had been complaints that nanotechnology activity within Ireland suffered from being “fragmented”, said Martin Shanahan, the current Forfas chief executive.

“This report is about putting a framework around it and bringing some coherence to it,” he said yesterday.

A key report finding said the sector needed much greater focus. “We can’t be good at everything,” Mr Shanahan said, adding that better focus would produce greater economic impact and a better use of resources.

The existing funding levels for nanotechnology research, which has seen €282 million flowing into the sector between 2000 and 2009, should be maintained.

A much greater focus was needed, however, in order to become a world player, the report said.

It recommended the sector should target four areas of nanotechnology application: advanced electronics; medical and diagnostic devices; environmental applications; and industrial process improvements, Mr Shanahan said.

The Forfas report recognised nanotechnology as “a powerful growth engine for the Irish economy”, said Prof Roger Whatmore, who heads University College Cork’s leading nanotech centre, the Tyndall National Institute.