With over $40 billion in government funds having been poured into nanotechnology research worldwide over the last five years, countries are now emphasizing the importance of application-driven research in this emerging field while a shakeup is occurring among the leading nations in nanotech spending, according to a new white paper from London-based Cientifica.

Cientifica Ltd, a consulting firm in emerging technologies, in its yearly analysis of government funding figures is reporting in a free white paper "Nanotechnology Takes a Deep breath, and Prepares to Save the World!" that governments will be spending nearly $10 billion on nanotechnology research in 2009, but despite this huge figure government spending has begun to slow down. Spending will only grow by 9.3% from 2008-2012 compared with the 130% increase witnessed from 2004-2008.

With this slowdown, governments are urging more emphasis on application-driven research that will help individual countries meet their particular grand challenges whether it is energy independence or clean drinking water.

Cientifica's research has also reveals that the long-time leaders of nanotechnology funding, the United States and Japan, have now fallen to third and fourth behind the EU and Russia, with the US being tied with China for third.

Cientifica CEO, Tim Harper commented " with over ten years of research funding under its belt, nanotechnologies are finally becoming mature enough for mainstream applications."

http://www.nanovip.com/node/55128