White House calls for nanotechnology-inspired grand challenges
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White House calls for nanotechnology-inspired grand challenges www.nano.gov
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nderstanding and precisely controlling the properties of materials at the nanoscale could lead to innovations that impact nearly every industry. Over the past 15 years, the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has fueled significant breakthroughs that have led to nanomaterials for catalysts, batteries, solar cells, electronics, and medical devices. Now, to take the original NNI goals further, the US White House is requesting ideas for grand challenges that could be solved using nanotechnology. The Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking suggestions for NanotechnologyInspired Grand Challenges for the Next Decade on June 17. The White House defines Grand Challenges as “ambitious but achievable goals that harness nanoscience, nanotechnology, and innovation to solve important national or global problems and have the potential to capture the public’s imagination.” The RFI is a result of the most recent review of the NNI by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
One of the nanotechnology-inspired grand challenges suggested by the White House is to create computer chips that are 100 times faster yet consume less power. This picture shows a computer chip with 7-nm transistors that IBM made by using silicongermanium instead of silicon. The technology could enable up to 20 billion transistors on a fingernail-sized chip. Credit: Darryl Bautista/Feature Photo Service/IBM.
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MRS BULLETIN
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VOLUME 40 • SEPTEMBER 2015
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As opposed to the NNI, which fostered basic research in nanotechnology, the focus of the Grand Challenges will be on complex nanosystems and commercialization of federally funded nanotechnology research. “A positive economic outcome would presumably be viewed as part of the success of any program,” said Paul Weiss, Director of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California–Los Angeles. Bringing innovations to fruition in the market requires interdisciplinary teams that can address challenges across various technical and business domains. The NNI laid the groundwork for innovation by bringing together experts in many different areas, Weiss said. “We set ourselves up to know each other’s languages and approaches and used that to our advantage across the field.” It will be exciting to see whether this outcome of the NNI can now drive commercialization through the Grand Challenges framework, he added. According to the OSTP, effective Grand Challenges should have measurable end points, advance fundamental scientific knowledge, drive the need for collaboration, catalyze the transition of a technology from laboratory to market, and be exciting enough to motivate decision makers. The RFI mentions six examples of potential challenges that the nanotechnology research and development community could achieve by 2025. These include: ■ create computer chips that are 100 times faster yet consume less power; ■ manufacture atomically pre
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