POLICY NEWS

Euro nanotech trade association formed

The Institute of Nanotechnology aims to launchthe European Nanotechnology Trade Association(ENTA) in June to “represent nanotechbusinesses across Europe; bridge gapsbetween governments, science and industrypolicy makers, and business; and supportindustry uptake of nanotechnology”. It will alsointerface with the public and watchdogorganizations to ensure transparency and thatnew nanotechnologies are developed in a safeand responsible manner. ENTA says that it will work with governmentbodies to express industry’s views and needs(on legislation, standards, standard operating

procedures), as well as build relationships withnongovernmental organizations and the publicto ensure full community engagement. ENTA is backed by Procter and Gamble, BPInternational, Thomas Swan, Nexia Solutions,Imerys, SmartBead Technologies, LOT-Oriel,and the Institute of Occupational Medicine.Membership is open to businesses andorganizations for whom nanotechnology has ormay have an impact. ENTA says it is currently surveying Europe’sleading nanotechnology organizations to shapefuture strategy and initiatives.Mark Telford

ALLIANCES

In January, constructionbegan on the Irishgovernment’s six-storey,�29 million Centre forResearch on AdaptiveNanostructures andNanodevices (CRANN) atTrinity College Dublin. Itwill collaborate withUniversity College Dublin,University College Cork,and industrial partnersincluding Intel and Irishcompanies DeeracFluidics, Commergy,Magnetic Solutions, andEblana Photonics. CRANN was launched inJanuary 2004 with funding from Science FoundationIreland’s Centres for Science, Engineering, andTechnology initiative, and should open in early 2006.Above a conference center and a public sciencegallery, nanoscience labs will house over 150 staff. A first phase will focus on the physics and chemistryof materials, including biomolecules. Four mainthemes will be: the membrane-fluid interface;nanoscale contacts and transport; nanoscaleorganization and self-assembly; and spin transportand nanomagnetic applications. Projects will lasttwo years or more. “The center could make nanotechnology what thesoftware and pharmaceutical sectors have been to[the Irish] economy in recent decades,” said MicheálMartin, enterprise, trade, and employment minister.

Also, Bell Labs has opened a research center inparent company Lucent Technologies’ Dublin facility.It will employ about 40 researchers and collaboratewith nine Irish universities, technical institutes, andthe Irish government. The center is heading a new project to use Bell Labs’Si-based ‘nanograss’ for heat transfer to liquidcoolants in electronic and photonic systems. TheUniversity of Limerick will study the physics of fluidflow and heat transfer across nanoscalesuperhydrophobic surfaces. Trinity College Dublin willstudy how nanograss increases the effective area ofa flat surface ten-fold. University College Cork’sTyndall Institute will model and optimizemicrochannels, and research low-cost fabricationprocesses.Mark Telford

Ireland builds for the nanoscale NEW FACILITIES

The College of Nanoscale Science and

Engineering (CNSE) at the University at

Albany-State University of New York,

and Albert Einstein College of Medicine

at New York’s Yeshiva University, are

collaborating on nanobiotechnology and

nanomedicine education and research.

In the first program, CNSE’s Center for

Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials

and Nanoelectronics (CATN2) will

develop ‘biosystems on a chip’.

Fellow CATN2 member Alfred University

is creating a research center for fine

ceramics/nanotechnology with a

$10 million gift from Japan’s Kyocera.

The renamed Kazuo Inamori School of

Engineering (in honor of Kyocera’s

founder) will hire up to four

researchers in materials processing,

with a focus on biomedical and

photonic applications. Mark Telford

Quantum dotsgain visibility COLLABORATION

Quantum-dot developer Evident

Technologies has won a Small Business

Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from

the US Department of Defense to

develop efficient thermoelectric thin

films, in collaboration with Canada’s

University of Toronto.

Another SBIR grant, $500 000 over

two years from the National Science

Foundation, has gone to Konarka

Technologies to raise the efficiency of

its dye-sensitized solar cells to 10%.

Konarka and Evident are collaborating

to combine Evident’s EviDots™, which

absorb throughout the visible

spectrum and into the near-infrared,

with Konarka’s conductive polymers to

create high-performance plastic solar

cells with increased sensitivity to a

wider range of the solar spectrum. Mark Telford

Partnerships in New York COLLABORATION

May 2005 17

An artist’s impression of the building under construction at Trinity College Dublin for Ireland’s new

Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN).