"The European Commission's Horizon 2020 program aims to bridge the gap between nanotechnology research and markets, and to realize the potential contribution to sustainable growth, competitiveness, environment, highly skilled jobs and increased quality of life.
Horizon 2020 activities addressing this challenge will therefore implement the next steps towards the deployment and market introduction of lightweight, multifunctional, economical and environmentally friendly nano-enabled products for different applications, by scaling up laboratory experience to industrial scale and by demonstrating the viability of a variety of manufacturing technologies.
In order to ensure the safe development and application of nanotechnologies, Horizon 2020 aims to advance scientific knowledge of the potential impact of nanotechnologies on health or on the environment, and to provide tools for risk assessment and management along the entire life cycle."
Expected impact:
- Supporting European competitiveness through accelerated market uptake of nano-enabled products
- Improvement in existing manufacturing processes and industrial productivity
- Contribution to improved technical knowledge
- Promoting safe-by-design approaches and contributing towards the framework of EU nanosafety and regulatory strategies (including standardization)
- Providing significant long term societal benefits in terms of improved health care and improved quality of life
The Horizon 2020 program builds upon the FP 6 and FP 7 Grant Frameworks of the past 10-15 years, which has activated an ecosystem with more than 2000 players across Europe. Research projects in the nano field can be "clustered" into different areas:
- Electronics/ICT and Nanomaterials which cross over into virtually all nano-territories, including Industrial Applications, Security, Textiles and Agrifood.
- Energy and Environment - revealing the potential to give the world cheap access to clean water and energy
- Nano in Healthcare - including Diagnostics, Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine
- Nano in Textiles
- Nano in othere areas
An example of the Nanomaterial technology mapping (here for Insdustrial Applications) resulting from EU's FP 6 and FP7's grants)
