Identifying metrics of impact of public and private investment in developing an emerging technology such as nanotechnology is the primary "intellectual" objective of the proposed symposium/workshop. It is an important objective, which extends beyond nanotechnology to other emerging technologies. In addition, this symposium/workshop serves to provide economic information to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Intellectual merit: This project aims to elucidate long term return on investment (ROI) from national investments in new science and technology research through a symposium/workshop vehicle. The project involves two parts: a Symposium on the Economic Value of Nanotechnology, followed by a Round Table that aims to scope the specific needs of governments in this field and to identify collaborative work to meet those needs. The first part will gather information and expert opinion on the appropriate metrics for evaluating the economic impact of nanotechnology generally, which would be a first step towards evaluating the economic impact of the NNI specifically.
The organizers intend to engage stakeholders to explore the issues involved in national innovation initiatives and their underlying laws, strategies, workforce issues, etc., first, in a single-day symposium on the economic value of nanotechnology and then in a single-day roundtable workshop on how stakeholders can work together to fulfill needs identified on the first day.
Broader impacts: The results of this symposium/workshop would be of value to the US Government, particularly those agencies involved in planning future support for NNI projects. In addition, the symposium/workshop will help collaborations among governments to increase the economic impact of research in nanotechnology.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) together with the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) organised in March 2012 a symposium on "Assessing the Economic Impact of Nanotechnology". This international symposium brought together participants from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and expertise (including scientists, engineers, policy analysts, industry, government, business, private investors, technology leaders, key decision makers, and the general public) from both OECD and emerging economies including, for example, representatives from South Africa and India. The symposium was organised around expert talks and discussions. The aim of the symposium was to investigate possibilities to assess the impact of nanotechnology on the economy and society. Methodologies for impact assessment are very important as they can inform policy decisions regarding investment in nanotechnology, and they can also help support adequate policy measures for the field to fully realise its opportunities in a responsible manner. The symposium highlighted a number of challenges that are still making the assessment of the impact of nanotechnology difficult, and the participants discussed how these challenges might be overcome. Discussions were informed by presentations of different methodologies that have already been developed to track and assess the impact of nanotechnology. Some of the challenges discussed were: There are no conventional definitions or classifications for nanotechnology, nor definitions of a nanotechnology product, a nanotechnology process or a nanotechnology company. Such definitions are essential in order to understand the nature of the contribution of nanotechnology and to assist in data collection; In fact, measuring the impact of nanotechnology is made more complex by its multipurpose nature: nanotechnology can be fundamental to a product giving it its key functionality; nanotechnology can be ancillary to the value chain and constitute a small percentage of a final product; or nanotechnology may not even be present in the final product, only affecting the process leading to its production. Nanotechnology can operate all along the value chain, and an impact assessment necessitates not only looking at final products containing nanotechnology but also the potential impact of nanotechnology all along the value chain of that product; The sheer number of applications of nanotechnologies across all technology sectors, and their enabling nature, creates a complex and fractured landscape for analysis; Nanotechnology operates alongside many other interventions and is increasingly interconnected with other enabling technologies. Extracting what exactly is the role of nanotechnology in this environment can be difficult; and There is large amount of data linked to nanotechnology development, but there are issues in manipulating then and turning them into useable and meaningful information. Discussions highlighted that it is very important when conducting an impact analysis to deciding at the start what exactly the objective of this impact analysis is going to be: what is to be measured (e.g. output of a particular research grant, impact of a particular product using nanotechnology) ? who is going to undertake the measurement? who will benefit from the assessment? what sort of figures are needed from this methodology? The results could refer to monetary value and GDP growth, but also refer to impact on environmental benefits and social benefits, which are of significant importance to governments. Is it going to evaluate value at some points in the past, or is it going to be a forecasting exercise in which one looks at the value going forward of a particular intervention or a particular set of nanotechnology improvements? Discussion at the symposium identified that it is very challenging to develop a "one-size fits all" methodology. The data collected, the indicators and methodology chosen might need to be adapted to the specifics of the assessment conducted. An important point conclusion to the symposium was that international collaboration is essential for developing methodologies to assess the impact of nanotechnology. The symposium enabled international discussion on the issue of the assessment of the impact of nanotechnology and gave an overview of worldwide efforts ongoing in the field. "The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries."
