Nanotechnology Public Funding and Impact Analysis A tale of two decades (1991-2010)

Nanotechnology's econo-mic and societal benefits have continued to attract significant research and development (R&D) attention from governments and industries worldwide. Over the past two decades, nanotechnology has seen quasi-exponential growth in the numbers of scientific papers and patent publications produced. New research topics and application areas are continually emerging, and investment from government, industry, and academia [1], [2] has expanded at substantial levels. But what is the impact of public funding on nanotechnology? How important is its role in driving innovation, invention, and knowledge transfer? In the context of these questions, this article presents a 20-year longitudinal analysis of global nanotechnology development trends and illustrates the impact of fundamental research supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). We show that NSF-sponsored nanotechnology funding, paper publications, and patents increased by 2.7, 4.3, and 2.19 times, respectively, in 2001-2010 as compared to 1991-2000 (Figure 1). In addition to the United States, Japan, and selected European countries that are