US$81 Million Awarded for Developing Nanotech Infrastructure

18 September, 2015—The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced this week an award of US$81 million over five years to support the development of a new National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI). The project will provide support to 16 shared facilities located in 15 states, involving 27 American universities, to advance research in nanoscale science, engineering and technology.  
 
The funding will provide researchers in academia, government and industry access to university user facilities with cutting-edge fabrication and characterization tools, instrumentation and expertise. The framework of the NNCI initiative builds on the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network that has enabled major discoveries and innovations that contributed to education and commerce for the past ten years.
 
One award recipient, Arizona State University (Tempe, Ariz., USA), has been awarded US$0.8 million per year for five years to establish the Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure Southwest (NCI-SW), a regional infrastructure for nanotech research and education at six facilities in Arizona. The facilities will encompass research in fabrication, solid-state science, flexible electronics and displays, photovoltaics and other nanotechnology.