Highlights of the NNI Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives


The Federal agencies participating in the NNI have identified focused areas of national importance that may be more rapidly advanced through enhanced interagency coordination and collaboration. These Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives (NSIs) provide a spotlight on critical areas and define the shared vision of the participating agencies for accelerating the advancement of nanoscale science and technology from research through commercialization. By combining the expertise, capabilities, and resources of appropriate Federal agencies, the NSIs accelerate research, development, and insertion, and overcome challenges to the application of nanotechnology-enabled products.

Each NSI combines the focused efforts of a number of contributing Federal agencies with related missions that are committed to coordinating research and implementing strategies to achieve the goals defined for the NSIs, and to updating and prioritizing those goals as the research progresses. Individual agency-funded or mission-specific programs have benefited from improved awareness of complementary activities at other agencies and have been developed in the context of broader Federal activities. While it is challenging to describe the full impact of the NNI Signature Initiatives on nanotechnology research, development, and commercialization, these documents provide examples of key accomplishments and highly successful collaborations that each of these initiatives has produced.