1

2.OECD Working Party on Nanotechnology

3 WPN-lead Case Studies (OECD makes recommendations

to policy makers, members and observers)

1.WATER

2.BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

3. SOCIETAL DIMENSION

(public outreach and public dialogue, points for consideration)

2

1st WPN Case Study: FOSTERING NANOTECHNOLOGY

TO ADRESS GLOBAL CHALLENGES : WATER

3

The OECD Horizontal Program on Water

• Pertains to the Green Growth priority of OECD;

• Examines the financial needs for water infrastructure

• Evaluates the available sources of financing

• How the gap between the two can be bridged, in particular by emerging, off the grids technological solutions

• WPN has made a contribution available since March 2011 on the basis of technologies for water treatment and resource management

4

Water Treatment Technologies A market of 1.6 billion USD in 2007 expected to reach

6.6 billions USD in 2015(filtration 30%, desalination

23%, irrigation 6%, and as a small but promissing

maket : disinfection

5

Nanotechnologies for Water: key challenges

6

The role of policy makers for 2 challenges

• 1.EHS issues, clarifying potential risks:

• 2.Technology transfer to the point of use ( more controversial on IPR )

7

2nd WPN Case Study on Business environment :

THE IMPACTS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

ON COMPANIES -

• Project initiated and developed in 2007, when

WPN was established.

• Interviews with companies to develop detailed case studies commenced in January 2008, finalised in March 2009.

• Analysis at OECD and through a workshop of participating countries.

• Published November 2010

8

POLICY INSIGHTS FROM CASE STUDIES

Remainder of presentation: 4 points

• Company characteristics and features

• Challenges for the commercialization of nanotechnology

• Main findings from the WPN Survey

• Policy issues and recommendations

THE IMPACTS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY ON COMPANIES

9

WPN Survey: Characteristics of

case study companies

by country: 51 case studies across 17 countries

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Num

ber

of c

ompa

nies

10

WPN Survey: Company characteristics (1)

• By size: very small to very large

• From 9 employees to 112,000 (ABB, Nokia & Zeiss)

Small (1-49 employees)

47%

Medium (50-249 employees)

22%

Large (over 250 employees)

31%

11

WPN Survey: Company characteristics (2)

• Areas of nanotechnology activity – case study companies compared to patents

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Nanobio Nanoelectronics Nanomaterials Instruments,measurement

Nanooptics Nanomagnetics

Patents Companies

12

WPN Survey: Company characteristics (3)

• Application of nanotechnology – case study companies compared to patents

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Patents Companies

13

WPN Survey: Company characteristics (4)

by size and sub area

Nano-bio Nano-

electronics

Nano-

materials

Instruments

measurement Nano-optics

Small

companies 25% 20% 24% 10% 8%

Medium

companies 9% 18% 27% 82% 0%

Large

companies 6% 31% 50% 6% 6%

14

WPN Survey Company characteristics (5)

operational areas involving nanotech

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

15

WPN Survey : Sources of Technology

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Small companies Medium companies Large companies

In-house R&D

For-profit company

University

Other research institution

Government laboratory

Other

16

Challenges: Commercialisation (1) Significant challenges for commercialisation

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

R&D Humanresources

Financial IPR Valuechains

Production Marketing EHS Otherregulatory

issues

% o

f a

ll m

en

tio

ne

d c

ha

llen

ge

s

17

Challenges: Commercialisation (2)

by company size

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

R&D Humanresources

Financial IPR Valuechains /businessmodels

Production Marketing EHS Otherregulatory

issues

Small companies

Medium companies

Large companies

18

Challenges: Commercialisation (3)

by type of nanotechnology

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Nanobiotech Nanomaterials Nanoelectronics Instruments, measurement

19

Challenges: Barriers to entry (1)

The larger companies in the sample seem well placed to assimilate nanotechnology based on their existing critical mass in R&D and production, their ability to acquire and operate expensive instrumentation and use external knowledge.

•This finding on the relative strength of larger companies in the early phases of nanotechnology developments runs counter to the traditional model of company dynamics and technology lifecycles

20

Challenges : Barriers to entry (2)

Nanotechnology is a complex field depending on various scientific disciplines, research/engineering approaches and advanced instrumentation. Further, many nanotechnology sub-areas are in an early, immature, phase of development.

•These features of nanotechnology can often create barriers to entry especially for smaller companies that have limited human and other resources. They also contribute to the poor process scalability of nanoscale engineering during the transition from R&D to pilot and industrial scale production

21

Challenges : Human resources

• There are difficulties in recruiting appropriate human resources, especially for R&D and production activities

• There is a need for “gatekeepers” who combine specialist and general knowledge and can also manage interdisciplinary teams. These people are particularly difficult to find

22

Challenges : Funding R&D

• Many companies identified challenges in funding R&D and related activities, in particular for business start-ups

• The poor process scalability of R&D increases costs and prolongs new product development times

• Uncertain regulatory environments and public perceptions of nanotechnology‟s environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks add further complications to the funding of R&D

23

Challenges : Value Chains

Entry and positioning in value chains is complicated by factors including :

• The novelty of nanotechnology

• The established interests of stakeholders

• Is it often difficult to communicate the value proposition of applications of nanotech to potential customers (e.g. other companies)

• This challenge is greater for smaller companies that experiment with multiple applications and have to monitor many different industries and business environments

24

Challenges for Policy Makers (1)

A „one size fits all‟ policy for nanotechnology may not be the best approach

• Policies adapted to different application types (energy, health etc) may be more helpful

• Both large and small companies are active in nanotechnology

• But many national policies for nanotechnology focus on small and start-up companies

• Government policies may need to address companies of all sizes

• There are a range of commercialisation challenges

• Some apply more to small companies, rather than large companies

• Others apply to certain sub-areas of nanotech

25

Challenges for Policy Makers (2)

• Many of the challenges are related

• For example technical barriers, R&D funding, human resources, manufacturing issues and EHS concerns may all be linked

• However, different government agencies may be responsible for these policies

• Thus Governments need to co-ordinate agencies and strategies

26

Challenges for Policy Makers (3)

Commercialisation, particularly, presents many challenges.

•Poor process scalability is well recognised

•Companies benefit from support for

– manufacturing technologies

– process technologies

And infrastructure ( for example instrumentation, clean rooms, centres of excellence)

•Education of both specialists and generalists to assist development and commercialisation of nanotechnology

•Facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations

•Vocational training in nanoscale manufacturing

27

Challenges for Policy Makers (4)

Other and emerging challenges include:

• Regulatory uncertainty

• IPR - in particular existing very broad patents, and patent thickets

• Funding – particularly for commercialisation, including venture capital

• Lack of data on nanotech companies and activity - case studies are important sources of information

28

3rd WPN Survey (to be declassified in 2011)

Societal dimension of nanotechnology

• A report on Outreach and Public Engagement as a planning guide for beginners in the field…

• 8 points for consideration identified and tested on participating countries

Point Action

1 Identify the context

2 Be clear about your objective(s)

3 Identify the participants

4 Plan the process

5 Select the activity

6 Identify the organisers

7 Know your goals/ recognise success

8 Learn and adapt

29

Ex: Be clear about your objectives

Objective Examples of questions

Communication about nanotechnology, its application and impacts

Is your aim:

Information exchange

Exchange of experiences / good practices around

nanotechnology and current developments

Understanding opinions

Exploring a specific aspect of nanotechnology

Other?

Monitoring or evaluation

Are you engaging in:

Monitoring of public attitudes to nanotechnology

Evaluation of an awareness-raising campaign

Counting audience figures (e.g. TV)

Other?

Exploration of a specific issue

Is your need for:

Debate on a scientific issue or application of nanotechnology

to a sector or issue (e.g. nanomedicine, nano and

energy, nano and food)

Other?

Developing capacities

Are you seeking to develop:

Capacities in science and innovation, networking capacity?

Other?

Achieving a specific goal

Is your target:

Achieving a specific level of knowledge amongst the target

group, benefiting from local knowledge exchange

Developing or implementing a new practice

Gathering views on a proposal or initiative e.g. gathering

public input for policy-making)?

30

Main Conclusions of the WPN Report on public engagement

• To date, in most of the participating countries, discussion of nanotechnology has been limited to people directly engaged in the field and specialists. But with increasing support from governments, national communication plans are being organised to engage more broadly with the general public.

• In South Africa for example, there are many fairly new but ongoing activities which aim to engage all stakeholders playing a role in nanotechnology development, including industry, media, interest groups, school learners, school educators, children and the general public. This growing effort from governments to engage in communication activities in science and technology arises from the priority that STI has on many political agendas today, where science and technology are expected to play an increasingly important role in economic growth and social welfare. One example is in Ireland, where nanotechnology has been recognised as a “key enabling technology” at the policy level.

• The public is playing a strong role in the acceptance or rejection of the new technology. Therefore, public awareness and outreach is an important topic for policy makers when building STI governance strategies.

31

WPN Reports

• Fostering Nanotechnology to Address Global

Challenges: Water (2011)

• The Impacts of Nanotechnology on Companies: Policy

Insights from Case Studies (2010 )

• Nanotechnology: An Overview Based on Indicators and

Statistics (STI Working Paper 2009/7)

• Inventory of National Science, Technology and

Innovation Policies for Nanotechnology 2008

Access via website: www.oecd.org/sti/nano

OECD Working Party on Nanotechnology