It seems strange at first sight for a technology led economy such as Taiwan, but word is reaching us from our Singapore office that large cuts are being made in the research budget.
Whether this will affect nanotech or not remains to be seen, but it is indicative of a general trend of redistribution of R&D budgets around the world, many of which, especially in the Asia Pacific region, were devised in times of strong semiconductor industry growth.
Sometimes you have to do a little pruning in order to grow a healthy plant.