Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing area that holds the promise of revolutionizing a wide range of significant applications. Because of its critical role to a nation's future strengths and ability to compete, numerous countries have adopted national projects or programs to prompt research in nanotechnology. The research proposed in this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will result in a framework that supports researchers' ability to assess and compare the development of nanotechnology in various countries, and the analysis of inter-repository patent publication influences and knowledge exchange patterns. This project will also result in automatic processing tools to aid inter-repository patent analysis.
Broader impact: Worldwide patent analysis results will be published in diverse media (e.g., journal papers, conference proceedings, and websites) to reach the nanotechnology community. An online analysis tool will be provided to the community, so that researchers can assess specific countries or institutions of interest. Such results and tools will help researchers, research centers, companies, and countries identify critical and promising nanotechnology research directions. This project also opportunities for training Ph.D. and Master's students in the areas of citation analysis, text mining, and knowledge visualization.
