Focus on the latest nanotechnology initiatives from the world’s fastest growing nanotech player.
China launched its first national strategy to promote nanotechnology in 2001, the National Nanotechnology Development Strategy (2001–2010), and R&D investment has been increasing year-on-year since, with the establishment of a number of national centers in nanotechnology. In November 2000, the National Steering Committee for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was established to oversee national policies and coordinate action. In January 2011, this committee announced that China’s spending on nanotechnology in the previous five years was more than three times what they spent from 2001-2005. China invested 5 billion Yuan (approximately USD760 million) on R&D in nanotech between 2006-2010, compared with 1.5 billion Yuan from 2001-2005. Also, the number of nanotechnology patent applications in China is now the second largest in the world. Nanotechnology patent numbers increased from 4,600 in 2005 to 12, 000 in 2009. China is also second in terms of nanotechnology-related scientific publications, behind the United States.
The Chinese government has been making significant strides in implementing infrastructure capable of fostering advances in nanotechnology development in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. China has quickly closed the gap on a number of developed nations in nanotechnology; however, commercialization of nano products in China is still not up to speed in comparison to other nations, especially in high value product areas such as electronics and medicine.
China’s science and technology (S&T) policy embraces the idea of “speeding up the construction of an innovation system that takes enterprises as the centre, the market as guide, with commercialization and research interwoven.” However despite the impressive strides China has made in nanotechnology, it still faces a number of problems in nanotechnology development such as an insufficient understanding of the industrial need for the technology and the mechanism to turn its research capabilities into products.
FUNDING BODIES
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is the main mover in developing national science policy in China and in designing
and implementing many of the national funding programs. Its programs account for between 15-20% of the national government’s expenditure on R&D. The rest of the funding comes from the budgets of CAS and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) (the economic planning body of the State Council), and from other central ministries (the Ministries of Industry and Information Technology, Education, Public Health and Agriculture, among others). Local governments (provincial and municipal) play an important role in supporting R&D and account for 40-50% of all reported government spending on science.
NATIONAL CENTERS
Around 70 major research centres (universities and state-sponsored research institutes) are engaged in nanotechnology research. As part of the 2001 nanotechnology strategy, three national nanotechnology centres were established: the Nanotech Industrialization Base of China (NIBC), the Shanghai Nanotechnology Promotion Center (SNPC and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST).
Main nanotechnology research and commercialization centers in China are:
• Nanotech Industrialization Base of China (NIBC), based in Tianjin, Founded 2000
• Shanghai Nanotechnology Promotion Center (SNPC), Shanghai, 2001
• National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), Beijing, 2003
• National Center for Nanoengineering, Shanghai, 2003
• China National Academy of Nanotechnology and Engineering (CNANE), Tianjin, 2005
• Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety (LBENN), Beijing, 2006
• National Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology (NERCN), Shanghai, 2003
• Institute of Nanotech and Nanobionics, Suzhou, 2006
• Nanotechnology Commercial and Innovation Base (in Suzhou Industry Park), Suzhou, 2010
The main centres act as technology incubators, helping universities and industry to commercialize R&D. Industrial parks are set up by local governments or jointly with foreign investors to geographically concentrate nanotech companies. These industrial parks are usually located near research centers, with which companies cooperate.
FIVE YEAR PLANS
Chinese government expenditures for science and technology are included in annual budgets which are guided by priorities set in five-year economic plans. China’s 11th Five-Year Plan ended in 2010, with the 12th Five-Year Plan coming into effect in March 2011. In the 11th plan China designated nanotechnology as one of its four major programs in basic science.
China’s model for nanotechnology is top-down state-sponsored science, supplemented by linkages to industry and international scientific networks. The government’s science policy bureaucracy sets nanotechnology goals, plans approaches, funds projects and facilitates domestic and international research collaboration.
Most other nations with nanotechnology initiatives up to now have supported nanotechnology research, but played little role in the commercialization of these technologies. China, with a weaker private sector and less access to private capital than nations such as the US supports nanotechnology via national programs and is seeking to commercialize this research in certain key areas. China’s nanotechnology resources are generally allocated to the government’s priorities of resolving key challenges the areas of agriculture, environment, population, health, and national defence. The government is eager to see near-term results from the research it funds and projects with commercial emphasis are often those that are funded. A relatively small group of leading universities and research institutes receive government funding; and China’s nanotechnology accomplishments are narrowly concentrated in these institutions. From 1990 to 2006, over half of China’s nanotechnology publications came from CAS, Tsinghua University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University and Peking University.
The 12th FYP’s guiding principles will promote the government’s focus on “inclusive growth,” which means ensuring the benefits of economic growth are spread to a greater proportion of Chinese citizens. The plan’s key themes are rebalancing the economy, ameliorating social inequality and protecting the environment. Three sectors that will receive a major boost from the 12th FYP are health care, energy and technology. Not only have segments of these sectors been singled out as China’s new Strategic Emerging Industries (SEIs), but they also dovetail with the 12th FYP’s emphasis on “inclusive growth.” The government will heavily invest in science and technology R&D in order to bring about key breakthroughs in targeted technology subsectors, such as core electronic devices, integrated circuits, life sciences, space, marine, earth sciences and nanotechnology.
INDUSTRY
Very few of the nanotechnology patent applications in China are from Chinese business, highlighting the dearth of commercialization by companies in China. China has mainly been focused on infrastructure building in the last decade and as a result the mechanisms for commercializing nanotechnology are not very well established. China has done very little to date to foster nanotechnology start-ups, and the state-run commercialization centers have yet to fully come to fruition. However, Dr Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, stated in 2011 that China would design national nanotechnology programs during the next five years in order to seek original breakthroughs.
More integration and interaction between the private sector and the research base is an essential area for China’s nanotechnology development, which has thus far been driven by the public sector. China’s domestic nanotechnology “market” is mainly composed of the nanomaterials segment (approximately 80% of the marker, primarily concerned with metal oxide, nanometals and other nanopowders production), with remaining applications in cosmetics, paints and coatings. It has been estimated that there are between 800-1200 companies with nanotechnology activities in China-mostly indigenous companies that tend to focus solely on the China market. Foreign companies tend to focus on the commercialization of higher value items such as nanosensors, healthcare solutions, energy storage, displays, and diagnostic tools in medicine.
Over 90% of research (particularly of nanomaterials) is conducted in university research centers and in state-sponsored research institutes. Public and private companies) only contribute less than 10% to overall research. These companies are mainly concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, over 95% of which are small SMEs.
