Nanotechnology applications: a driving force for R&D investment

摘要

Nanoscience and nanotechnology represent scientific-technical areas that in less than two decades have gone from being in the hands of a reduced group of researchers who glimpsed their great potential, to constitute one of the recognized pillars of the scientific advance for the next decades. This paper illustrates how the irruption of nanotechnology applications will directly affect human beings by substantially improving diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and also our capacities to interact with our surroundings. Worldwide governments realized the important role deserved to nanotechnology and during the last decade budgets allocated to R&D in nanotechnology have continuously increased. Following this global trend, Spanish scientists and institutions have gone from having a rather conservative attitude to promoting a number of different initiatives aiming at increasing the contribution of Spain to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology.