The world is getting smaller for Australian nanotech ventures

As a nation, Australia has often lagged behind bigger and better-funded countries when it comes to seizing on a new technology and taking it to new places. But with the emerging nanotechnology industry, Australia is finding itself in a position of relative strength, despite our size.

According to the co-director of the CSIRO Centre for Nanotechnology, Vijoleta Braach-Maksvytis, the first sign that nanotechnology was about to become an important emerging industry happened in 2000, when the US and other countries around the world started to heavily invest in and develop nanotechnology programs. The US government, for example, pledged $US500 million towards its National Nanotechnology Initiative, and this year is committed to spending more than $US800 million.

Australia wasn't far behind, announcing its own nanotechnology initiative early in 2001, and in the Federal government's National Research Priorities, announced last year, nanotechnology was highlighted as a 'Frontier Technology' to be supported. Individual states are also getting in on the act, with a number of nanotechnology initiatives unveiled in the last 12 months.

But where other countries like the US are spending vast amounts of money pulling together multidisciplinary programs and creating linkages between research and industry, Australia has had a relative advantage in already having a lot of those linkages in place, and being able to act quickly on it, says Braach-Maksvytis.

Playing to strengths

Australia has several strengths to draw on in developing its own nanotechnology industry, says Braach-Maksvytis, who says her personal passion for nanotechnology has led her into becoming an outspoken advocate for the technology.

First of all, she believes, our strong science is an asset. Australia is a world leader in biomimetic engineering -- the biosensor developed by Sydney-based company Ambri, for example, is a world-first example of a working, self-assembling nanodevice.

Another strong area of expertise is in nanoparticles, with two companies, Advanced Nano Technologies (ANT) and Microniser, producing some of the smallest nanoparticles around.

A second strength is the fact that Australia already has good examples of multidisciplinary science and industry linkages at work, in CSIRO, the Cooperative Research Centres, special research centres and so on.

"We [won't] have the enormous outlay to create functional multidisciplinary groups [because] we already have them," Braach-Maksvytis says.

She points out that Australian scientists have, ironically, been pretty good at criticising these programs, but globally they are seen as very innovative. "We have a mindset that can cross barriers, which is a multifunctional advantage," she says.

Third among our strengths is the fact that Australia has already set up multidisciplinary degree programs for nanotechnology. In fact, Flinders University in South Australia had the world's first nanotechnology degree program, and similar programs are springing up around the country.

"Last year we had six universities offering degrees in nanotechnology. We're very much in the forefront of education," Braach-Maksvytis says.

A final strength, says Braach-Maksvytis, may be that we are small enough to bring together all of the elements required to develop the industry, including linkages between R&D and industry, collaborative efforts and an open dialogue between all stakeholders, in a timely fashion.

"The key thing is that there is enthusiasm from everyone involved, a feeling of 'let's do things a bit differently this time'," she says.

Networking

One such initiative is the fledgling Australian National Nanotechnology Network, convened at last year's successful National Conference and Exhibition on Nanotechnology, which, as well as helping to link nanotechnology researchers around the country, is planning to lift the profile of Australian nanotechnology efforts both with Australia and overseas. With members including government agencies, universities, nanotechnology companies and industry groups with a vested interest in the technology, the network is hoping to be active this year.

Australia is earning a high profile in international nanotechnology circles, as evidenced by the participation of four Australian nanotechnology companies and two leading Australian scientists at the invitation-only World Nanotechnology Summit to be held in New York in early April.

Gavin Rezos, the managing director of Perth-based pSivida, is one of the speakers at the event. Rezos says the conference will be invaluable, as it will allow companies like pSivida to present to both potential partners and potential investors.

Braach-Maksvytis says that by getting in on the ground floor of nanotechnology, Australia has been given the opportunity to be a player on a global scale at a very strategic time in the development of the nanotechnology industry, in part due to the high profile put forward by Australian researchers at recent international events.

"It's starting to pay off as we're at the table at key strategic events," she says.

And from her observations, nanotechnology is really becoming a global industry, with countries discussing all manner of alliances, from the research to the investor level.

Over-hyped?

Starpharma CEO John Raff, however, is disappointed with what he sees as hype surrounding nanotechnology in Australia. Government nanotechnology initiatives are more focused on creating an industry than on helping those companies already carving out a niche for themselves in the nanotechnology landscape.

As an example, Raff points to the Victorian government's recent $12 million STI grant to a consortia of Victorian universities and CSIRO departments. Melbourne-based Starpharma, a nanotech pioneer through its joint venture with US-based Dendrimer Nanotechnologies, was not even approached about the initiative, he says.

The government should get behind companies already working in the nanotechnology industry, he says, and encourage research institutions to do the same.

But where should Australia actually be heading with nanotechnology, where will we find our niche? It's not an easily defined industry, spanning as it does the broadly overlapping categories of nano-electronics/photonics, nano-materials/nanoparticles and nano-biotechnology, and involving diverse disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, engineering and materials science.

"One needs to be cautious about what is lumped under this heading," says Ambri's chief scientist Bruce Cornell, who sees a current trend of rebadging everything small as nanotechnology.

Braach-Maksvytis believes there is no point in Australia focusing too heavily on nano-electronics, especially with the vast sums of money that are being spent by multinational electronics corporations in Japan and the USA. For a start, Australia doesn't have the funds to compete with billion-dollar projects.

On the other hand, she says, there is no guarantee that breakthroughs will be made by the big companies. "I'm not convinced that large sums of money equals breakthroughs," she says. "Our funding limitations mean that Australia has a practical bent in utilising technology."

In some ways, Australia has a couple of years' lead time over countries like the US, Braach-Maksvytis says, because we already have started forming a culture of collaboration and multidisciplinary research.

"We can harness capabilities across the board, and take advantages as they come up," she says. Being smart about how we do things is the key, she believes. Rezos agrees with the philosophy. "We need to corral our resources to look for areas where Australia can be competitive," he says. "At the moment we're just looking at our strengths."

Big opportunities

Carl Masens, the liaison officer at the University of Technology, Sydney's Institute for Nanoscale Technology and coordinator of the NanoHouse and NanoBody programs (see below) there says that potential opportunities for Australia lie in nanomaterials and biosensor technologies.

Medical applications are also tipped by Bruce Cornell to be major opportunities for Australia. He says nanotechnology areas like electronics and surface treatments will be monopolised by the multinationals, but areas like medical devices and diagnostics show more promise as niche opportunities.

Companies like Starpharma, Ambri and pSivida have already started carving out niches for themselves. With strong holdings in intellectual property and firmly established global links, these three companies are well on their way.

"I really feel we can become a leader in this field," says Braach-Maksvytis.

The NanoBody project

The Institute for Nanoscale Technology at UTS is developing two showcase projects for nanotechnology, NanoHouse and NanoBody. Intended as demonstration vehicles, the projects will showcase nanotechnology and ways it can be used, says Carl Masens, coordinator of the projects.

The NanoHouse project, which is being developed in collaboration with CSIRO, will focus on energy efficiency, including nanomaterials developed to coat surfaces providing protection against UV and IR light. Ultimately a real NanoHouse will be built utilising nanotechnologies.

The NanoBody project will focus on membrane engineering, and other nanotechnology approaches with biomedical applications. By necessity it will be a virtual project. For more information on the NanoHouse and NanoBody projects, visit www.nano.uts.edu.au/initiatives