OSTP Solicits Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenges

In response to an assessment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI),a federal R&D initiative focused on developing nanotechnology, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently released a Request for Information (RFI) that seeks suggestions for Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenges for the Next Decade.

A critical element of the president’s Strategy for American Innovation, grand challenges are ambitious but achievable goals that leverage science, technology, and innovation to solve important national or global problems with the potential to capture the public’s imagination. Grand challenges proposed for this RFI would specifically harness nanoscience and nanotechnology for problem solving while helping to: guide the science and technology priorities of federal agencies, catalyze new research activities, lead to the commercialization of nanotechnologies, and inspire different sectors to invest in taking action.

The RFI includes a number of potential grand challenges as examples in areas such as health care, electronics, materials, sustainability, and product safety. Seeking input from a broad range of nanotechnology stakeholders (e.g., researchers in academia and industry, non-governmental organizations, scientific and professional societies, members of the public), responses to the RFI must be received by July 16, 2015, to be considered.

Read the OSTP’s Request for Information here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/06/17/2015-14914/nanotechnology-inspired-grand-challenges-for-the-next-decade#h-7