Argentina

Several Latin American countries, among them Argentina, develop nanoscience and nanotechnology to improve scientific competences and economic competitiveness despite the low-to-moderate levels of research and [Page 19]development (R&D) investment and recurrent lack of infrastructure and equipment. In order to promote nanoscience and nanotechnology, several R&D policy measures have been launched in Argentina, a country with an important scientific tradition, spending around 0.5 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in R&D, and with 73,500 researchers, postgraduate students, and technicians producing approximately 6,000 papers each year, according to Science Citation Index. These measures, as well as different research strategies, attempt to deal mainly with that lack of infrastructure and equipment, an obstacle for the local development of the field.

Argentinean nanoscience and nanotechnology activities or, at least, those labeled that way, emerged around the year 2000. They resulted from the convergence of local scientific work, mainly in physics, chemistry, and materials science, and government programs to encourage participation in the field. At present time, government agencies consider nanoscience and nanotechnology one of the three priorities for R&D promotion and funding. In any case, and taking into account conditions and possibilities of an emerging country like Argentina, there is still no consensus among scientists to justify that priority status.

Argentina, with 220 publications in international journals between 2000 and 2006, is the third-ranked nanoscience and nanotechnology publisher in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico, countries which spend almost 1 percent and 0.5 percent of GDP in R&D, respectively. This research maintains a consolidated thematic structure around physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. Leading these disciplines is physics, with a strong tradition in Argentina and articulating with several topics of nanoscience and nanotechnology research. Secondary disciplines and subdisciplines related with nanoscience and nanotechnology, especially with technological applications, are less developed in this country. Considering paper production again, the main institutions involved in the field are (in decreasing order) the National Research Council (CONICET) including scientists working at CONICET institutes or at different universities; the University of Buenos Aires (UBA); the National Commission for Atomic Energy (CNEA), particularly the Atomic Centers at Bariloche and Buenos Aires (Constituyentes); and the Universities of La Plata and Córdoba.

Although Argentinean nanotechnology development, measured in number of patents, is also important in the region, the results are far behind advanced countries. With 11 international patents between 2003 and 2006, Argentina is the third country in Latin America after Brazil with 45 patents and Mexico with 20. Six of those patents belong to private companies, three to individuals sharing propriety with foreign colleagues, and two to public institutions. The majority of the patents come from the fields of nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology. The local productive sector shows an incipient expansion around biotechnological activities, another traditional field of R&D in Argentina.