Corporate Research and Development

Money and Anticipations

According to Lux, the world's corporate R&D on nanotechnology products exceeded $5 billion in 2006. This number represented a 19-percent increase from the previous year. Of this R&D investment, American corporations had the largest share, contributing 40 percent (about $2 billion) of the world's corporate R&D on nanotechnology. The global sales returns from nanotechnology products were $50 billion in the same year. Given a 10-time investment-return ratio, there is no surprise that corporations around the world continue to invest heavily in nanotechnology R&D.

It is difficult to estimate exactly how many nanotechnology-enabled products actually exist in the market today. For one thing, nanotechnology can enable a product in many possible ways. In fact, the definition of nanotechnology has been evolving over the past years. Demarcation is a daunting task for nanotechnology R&D. In addition, companies do not necessarily emphasize nanotechnology as the central feature of their products, making it difficult to survey “nanotech products.” For example, companies selling an apparel product with nanotechnology-enhanced fabric may elect to emphasize other features (such as design) of the product. Yet, the nanotechnology-enhanced fabric might be a product after years of R&D activities.

Despite the difficulties in estimation, there is clear evidence that hundreds of nanotechnology-enabled products exist in the commercial market. For example, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, which was established by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2005, identified nanotechnology consumer products using Internet search. Based solely on Web-based sources (i.e., the product's nanotechnology contents must be listed and searchable on Internet), the Project is able to document more than 800 “nanotech consumer products.” Hundreds of corporations around the world—spanning 24 economies—were involved in R&D and the production of these products. Multinational corporations that are involved include Apple, Eastman Kodak, IBM, and LG electronics. Prominent examples of nanotechnology-enabled products include Apple's iPod Nano, General Motor's Hummer (both companies' headquarters are based in the United States), Haier's refrigerator (the company's headquarter is based in China) and LG Elec-tronics's vacuum cleaner (the company's headquarter is based in Korea). Thousands of nanotechnology patents have been filed in the U.S. Patent Office, according to Z. Huang and colleagues.

Challenges and Collaborations

Corporations face a number of challenges when developing nanotechnology products. Most importantly, government agencies have shown great concerns over the potential health and safety risks associated with nanotechnology-enabled products. To meet regulatory standards, many corporations have expended efforts in their R&D activities to examine health and safety issues of their nanotechnology-enabled products. While government agencies have strongly supported academic research in nanotechnology in the past decade, corporations are increasingly encouraged to collaborate with universities to improve their “nanotech business.”

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