Active Nanotechnology

Grants and Reports

The NSF has solicited research proposals for “Active Nanostructures and Nanosystems” (ANN) since 2005. Fifteen awards, totaling $14.3 million, were granted between 2005 and 2007. Six were awarded from the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) division of NSF's engineering directorate; six were from the Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation Division; and three from the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS).

The NSF's Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) grant gives the following examples of active nanostructures: nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nanomachines, self-healing materials, nano-biodevices, transistors, amplifiers, targeted drugs and chemicals, actuators, molecular machines, light-driven molecular motors, plasmonics, nanoscale fluidics, laser-emitting devices, adaptive nanostructures, energy storage devices, and sensors. Such topical research areas are also sponsored by other programs of NSF and by research funding bodies throughout the world. While the ANN program is pioneering, it represents only a small fraction of the funding allocated globally to research on active nanostructures.

Bibliometric and bibliographic studies are now appearing to assess whether—and how rapidly—a shift to active nanostructures is occurring and what prototypical applications for active nanostructures are emerging. In one study, adapting NSF's interpretation of active nanostructures, more than 21,500 scientific publications related to active nanostructures were identified by Subramanian and colleagues in the ISI Web of Science during the period from 1995 to April 2008. Annual [Page 8]global publications related to active nanostructures grew from about 1,400 in 2004 to over 6,400 in 2007. Publications increase dramatically from 2006 (similar to Roco's prediction), with more than a doubling between 2006 and 2007.

Continued increases in the rate of growth can be expected when full-year data for 2008 and 2009 are available. Up to early 2008, the leading countries publishing research on active nanostructures (with their share of all global publications are the United States (32 percent), China (13 percent), Japan (12 percent), Germany (8 percent), South Korea (7 percent), and the United Kingdom (6 percent). Over 30 countries have published more than 50 publications, indicating the spread of research on active nanostructures. Publications are distributed across 147 journal subject categories, with 45 subject categories having more than 50 publications between 1995 and April 2008. The three leading journal subject categories are materials science, applied physics, and physical chemistry, with 26 percent, 22 percent, and 15 percent of all publications, respectively.

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