A report in Electronics Weekly rules out any large scale nanofabrication centre for the UK with a preference for a more distributed network. Most economic competitors of the UK already have advanced plans for, or established, open access centres for nanofabrication such as IMEC, Minatech or Albany Nanotech. The challenge for countries like the UK is not to replicate these facilities, but to identify areas in which the competitiveness can be enhanced, while making best use of existing resources and developing world class facilities in the shortest time-scale.
Bionanotechnology is one of the few areas where the UK is not playing catch up with other economic areas, and has sufficient financial, entrepreneurial and management expertise to enable the creation of a real and sustainable economic impact. As Cambridge Veture Capitalist Hermann Hauser is find of saying, “The Future is Wet.”