January 03, 2003 -- The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Chemical Industry Vision 2020 Technology Partnership laid the groundwork for future nanotechnology initiatives during the Nanomaterials and the Chemical Industry: R&D Roadmap Workshop, held September 30-October 2, 2002.

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More than 70 chemists, physicists, entrepreneurs, and others from industry, universities, start-ups, national laboratories, and federal agencies participated in the workshop. Over the course of three days, participants identified top R&D needs in the areas of nanomaterials, nanocomposites, ordered nanostructures, analytical tools, modeling, and manufacturing. The results will be used to create a technology roadmap to guide public and private investments in nanomaterial R&D.

"If we can develop a wide variety of nano-scale building blocks and learn how to effect directed, hierarchical self-assembly, we can launch a second industrial revolution," Jim Murday of the National Nanotechnology Initiative said in his opening remarks.

The Chemical Industry Vision 2020 Technology Partnership, a coalition of chemical companies committed to leveraging resources to accelerate innovation and technology development for a more sustainable future, report that current federal investments, which total more than $700 million, will need to be significantly increased to achieve the ambitious technology targets mapped out during the workshop.

The technology roadmap is scheduled for release in early 2003 at www.chemicalvision2020.org