Preliminary Comments, Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (2001)

Attempts to coordinate federal work on the nanoscale began in November 1996, when staff from several agencies decided to meet regularly to discuss their plans and programs in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This group continued informally until September of 1998, when it was designated the Interagency Working Group on NanoScience, Engineering, and Technology (IWGN) under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).¹

In its 2001 budget submission to Congress, the Clinton adminstration raised nanotechnology to the level of a federal initiative. The 2001 budget called for total funding for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) of $495 million, $422 million of which was ultimately granted by Congress, an increase of $151 million over funding in this area in FY2000.

Once the initiative was realized, the IWGN was disbanded and the NSTC Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) was established. NSET is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s nanoscale research and development programs. NSET membership includes representatives of departments and agencies currently involved in the NNI, departments and agencies planning on participating in the NNI, and White House officials. Currently represented on NSET are the Departments of Defense (DOD), Energy (DOE), Justice (DOJ), Transportation, Agriculture, and State; the Treasury Department; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); the National Science Foundation (NSF); the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Central Intelligence Agency; and three White House offices (the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and OSTP).

The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) has been established to serve as the secretariat to the NSET, providing day-to-day technical and administrative support. The NNCO supports the NSET in its preparation of multiagency planning, budget, and assessment documents and serves as a point of contact on federal nanotechnology activities.

The NNI is built around five funding themes distributed among the agencies currently funding nanotechnology research. These are given below with their proposed 2002 funding level:²

1. Long-term fundamental research ($177 million [+$32 million]),

2. Grand challenges ($161.4 million [+$35.4 million]),

3. Establishing centers and networks of excellence ($79 million [+$12 million]),

4. Creation of a research infrastructure ($84 million [+$1.6 million]), and

5. Societal and educational implications ($17.5 million [+$1.5 million]).

More details on these five themes and the organization of the initiative can be found in the NNI implementation plan.³

The Bush administration’s FY2002 budget included a $485 million request for the NNI. Since that budget proposal was released, four agencies have revised their FY2002 estimates of nanoscience and nanotechnology funding,⁴ resulting in an estimated $518.9 million of proposed funding for nanoscale research, an increase of 23 percent over FY2001. Table 1.1 details estimated agency funding for nanotechnology from 1999 to the present.⁵

According to the NNI implementation plan, each agency invests in projects that support its own mission and retains control over how it will allocate resources against its NNI proposals based on the availability of funding. Each agency evaluates its own NNI

research activities according to its Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) procedures. NNI is coordinated through NSET activities, direct interactions among program officers from the participating agencies, periodic management meetings and program reviews, and joint scientific and engineering workshops.