National Program of Nanotechnology (Brazil)

The National Program of Nanotechnology aims to develop competitiveness and increase the international share of Brazilian industry by taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by nanotechnology. The program was launched by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Minister of Science and Technology, Sérgio Rezende, on August 19, 2005. The program is composed of a set of actions that stem from the convergence of two key previous policies: the Program for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the 2004–07 Four-Year Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Industrial, Technological and Foreign Trade Policy, launched in 2004 by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

The main goal established in the background document of the Program for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is to develop new products and processes in nanotechnology, with a view to improving the competitiveness of Brazilian industry.

The program goals include: stimulating knowledge in nanoscience and nanotechnology, training qualified human resources, establishing a national network of research laboratories, encouraging interaction between research centers and the productive sector, bringing added value and technological intensification to industrial products, agribusiness and services, creating jobs for skilled workers, and creating innovative companies and improving competitiveness of companies in order to increase the Brazilian share of the global economy. The program also hopes to update higher education courses to accommodate nanotechnology, inform the public of the impacts of nanotechnology, and to inform about the new opportunities and risks of obsolescence that stem from nanotechnology in terms of current products and processes.

According to these goals, the main plans of action for nanotechnology in the Four-Year Plan of 2004–07 were to develop infrastructure and support for research and development networks on nanoscience and nanotechnology through joint projects by research institutes and industry. The Industrial, Technological and Foreign Trade Policy, in its drive to increase efficiency, the capacity for innovation, and the export of the Brazilian productive structure, has reserved a strategic place for nanotechnology by considering it an area of possibility for technological progress in other sectors of the economy. This perspective is incorporated into the 2007–10 Plan of Action of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is a continuation of the previous plan more closely linked to the Industrial Policy.