Asia Pacific Nanotechnology Forum

The Asia Pacific Nanotechnology Forum (APNF) is a networking organization that seeks to bring together those active in nanotechnology across the Asia Pacific region and targets governments, emerging industry, and the venture capital market. The forum coordinates policy across the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.

The APNF is the leading facilitator of the Asia Nanotechnology Forum and the Asia Nanotechnology Business Alliance, and publisher of the quarterly APNF News Journal. The organization also is active in coordinating conferences that address some of the key issues of nanotechnology in the Asia Pacific region. For example, the forum hosted the International Conference on Nanotechnology in Environmental Protection and Pollution (ISNEPP) in 2005. This was not only the first conference of its kind in the Asia Pacific that highlighted the advances in nanotechnology, but also discussed the use of nanotechnology for environmental cleanup and the reduction of pollution. The APNF is an independent nongovernment, not-for-profit organization, and actively encourages the coordination of nanotechnology development and programs and cross regional collaborations among government policy makers, industry, research and development (R&D) institutions, and leading researchers.

The organization is supported by industry funds, as well as funding from local governments. The APNF hosts the Annual APNF Conference and numerous country-local symposia, workshops, seminars, and exhibitions. Since its inauguration in February 2002, the APNF maintained a key role as supporting organization of a number of initiatives and major nanotechnology events in Asia, Europe, and the United States. However, conferences seem to have ceased in 2007, and the last issue of the journal available for download at the Website of the organization was in January 2007.

The organization emerged as a result of the Inaugural Conference of the APNF that was held at Tsukuba, Japan, in 2002, with 188 participants from industry, government, and R&D organizations worldwide. The organization emerged as a response to the need to create a forum for the Asia Pacific region, which, unlike the European Union, does not have a governmental [Page 33]coordination of regional nanotechnology policy, encompassing education, research and development, industry, and business. Thus, the forum tries to address the need for a strong alliance across in the AP region in nanotechnology R&D and commercialization.