Forfas 2009 - The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use

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Greater communication of all policies to all stakeholders.
Anchoring TTO structure in HEIs (third mission) with improved central support from
Enterprise Ireland.
Ensuring quality and sustainability.
Commercialisation Strategy for Nanotechnology in Ireland
To ensure that Ireland can strategically position itself to be a competitive nanotechnology
player, Forfás, at the request of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Science, Technology
and Innovation, undertook a study to investigate various strategies to support the
commercialisation of Irish nanotechnology research, both private and public. Nanotechnology
is an enabling technology that can have a deep and lasting impact on current Irish businesses
as well as current and potential foreign direct investment (FDI) in areas such as medical
devices and electronics. Nanotechnology impacted $254 billion worth of products in <strong>2009</strong>.
This impact is forecasted to grow to $2.5 trillion by 2015.
Through this study, Forfás sought to:
Identify the options and models for the island of Ireland to leverage its existing
nanotechnology research base to attract and retain FDI as well as spur the development
of indigenous enterprise in the context of the national and international innovation
environment.
Evaluate the feasibility of the various commercialisation options, including the possible
establishment of multidisciplinary nanotechnology fabrication (NanoFab) facilities that
will provide researchers, enterprise and entrepreneurs with access to precommercialisation
facilities, keeping in mind timeframes to full operation and return
on investment.
A review of nanotechnology infrastructure in Ireland reported that Ireland invested wisely and
has established a world class infrastructure. This infrastructure will serve as a strong
foundation as Ireland seeks to produce high quality nanotechnology research and push it
towards commercialisation.
An analytical review of the complete subset of nanotechnology areas reported that Ireland
benchmarks well internationally on the basis of normalised publications, patents and quality
of research. It does not, however, have the critical mass to make an impact on the global
stage. This assessment reported that Ireland has areas of strength such as electronics,
medical devices and pharma, and uncovered hidden gems in unexpected markets such as
catalysts. It was noted that Ireland does not have the combination of high critical mass, high
quality research and high commercial output in any single nanotechnology area.
<strong>The</strong>se are some of the initial recommendations drawn from the study:
Focus our resources on technologies in specific market areas where Ireland can build
world class quality research and critical mass that will attract industry investment.
<strong>The</strong> report proposes four market areas over the next five years: next generation
electronics; medical devices and diagnostics; environmental applications; and industrial
process improvements.
Leverage the investment that has been made to date and build on our achievements
Network our world-class infrastructure to achieve maximum impact