New Nanocenters

NSF will spend $69 million over the next five years to create six new university-based research centers for nanoscale science and engineering. The new centers are in addition to eight existing centers established with NSF funding since 2001. Ten federal agencies currently fund nanoscale research as part of the Bush administration’s National Nanotechnology Initiative, with NSF alone spending $250 million on nanoscale research grants in fiscal year 2004. The administration has proposed nearly $1 billion in nanoscale research funding for FY 2005.

“Each new center has a bold vision for research and education at the frontiers of science and technology, and with the existing centers, provides a coherent approach to US nanotechnology research and education,” said Mihail Roco, senior adviser for nanotechnology at NSF and head of the foundation’s nanotechnology initiative.

The new NSF centers will be located at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Ohio State University; the University of Pennsylvania; and Northeastern University in Boston.