News Clips
Western Mass. wants to play ball on nanotech
October 4, 2004
Mass High Tech
By Liz Thompson
Business, government and educational leaders are exploring new partnerships through the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a leader in nano- technology research, to help western Massachusetts and the commonwealth leverage part of the $1 trillion in annual nanotech production predicted worldwide in the next 15 years.
Partnerships became the focus of the Nanotechnology 2004 Conference last week at UMass-Amherst, where attendees heard official announcement of MassNanoTech Partners. The consortium will encourage business and industry leaders to connect with the university’s nanotech research and development program, which ranked seventh in the nation in new nanoscale and engineering grants from the National Science Foundation from 2001-2003.
The collaboration was announced by Mike Wright, managing director of MassNanoTech, the unit that oversees all nanotech-related activities at UMass-Amherst. Wright urged industry representatives, economic developers and academics at the conference to join in attacking the issues together because, he said, “To do this by ourselves is shortsighted.”
The National Science Foundation has designated nanotechnology science and engineering as a funding priority, asking Congress for $305 million for fiscal year 2005, $50 million more than in 2004. Last year NSF projected worldwide annual industrial nanotechnology production will exceed $1 trillion in 10 to 15 years.
The need for collaboration was seconded by David Bishop, president of the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium. A Bell Labs vice president and keynote speaker for the conference, Bishop said that while collaboration is an optimal strategy in other industries, “In nanotech, it’s the only strategy” because of the sizable investments and complicated R&D coordination required to get products to market.
To do so, Bishop said, the New Jersey group partners with small startups, universities, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense.
“By taking everybody’s input,” Bishop said, “I can afford to run a very expensive facility.” Consortium members pay only incremental costs and focus on bringing products to market and running their businesses.
UMass president Jack Wilson agreed, saying that while “UMass knows nano,” enlarging on the university’s success in the area will require partners. He noted the university is involved in another research-industry partnership on nanotechnology through its Lowell campus. The NSF last week announced a five-year, $12.4 million award to a consortium led by Northeastern University and including UMass-Lowell, the University of New Hampshire, the Museum of Science in Boston and Michigan State University to focus on high-rate nanomanufacturing tools and processes development.
With the launch of MassNanoTech Partners, Wright said dues-paying member companies will be able to collaborate directly with researchers by joining “technical research groups” focused on an area of nano-related research being conducted by over 50 faculty in eight departments at UMass-Amherst.
Under study are nanoscale materials and processes and nanoscale electronic devices or bio-nanotechnology. At least 16 nanotechnology-related inventions are available for licensing through UMass-Amherst, Wright said.
The UMass collaboration is supported by the Regional Technology Corp., which has launched a special interest group of western Massachusetts companies interested in the commercialization of early-stage academic research. RTC president Mahmud Awan said the group wants in because “Nanotechnology is a turning point in history.”
Tom Hubbard, vice president of Mass Tech Collaborative, an economic development agency whose Massachusetts Nanotechnology Initiative project is working to develop a nanotechnology strategy for the state, pointed to the commonwealth’s advantages.
“Most places in the country would die to have the kind of intellectual firepower we have here in Massachusetts,” he said. “The question is, how much can we make that stick to the economy in Massachusetts. And it’s not a given that it will stick.”
Donald McAlister, director of business development for the Center for Technology Commercialization in Westborough, which helps NASA commercialize its technologies, sees a chance for collaboration with UMass through the consortium.
MassNanoTech Partners represents “a huge opportunity for NASA to leverage their funding with what’s going on at UMass,” McAlister said. “MassNanoTech is a very well-established program, ranked very highly, and it’s really been one of those diamonds in the rough because of its location in western Massachusetts.”
Wright said MassNanoTech Partners is interested in making connections in western Massachusetts and beyond.
“We’ve got a tremendous amount of resources out here, both in terms of facilities and faculty, and we do want to play ball,” he said.