NanoManufacturing: Emergence and Implications for U.S. Competitiveness, the Environment, and Human Health

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The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), begun in 2001 and  focusing primarily on R&D, represents a cumulative investment of almost  $20 billion, including the request for fiscal year 2014. As research  continues and other nations increasingly invest in R&D, nanotechnology is moving from the laboratory to commercial markets, mass manufacturing, and the global marketplace–a trend with potential future import that some compare to history’s introduction of technologies with major economic and societal impact, such as plastics and even electricity. Today, burgeoning markets, innovation systems, and nanomanufacturing activities are increasingly competitive in a global context–and the potential EHS effects of nanomanufacturing remain largely unknown.