Research and innovation Dilemma on Nanotechnology

The Horizon 2020 program represents a paradigm shift with respect to the past introducing a strong focus on innovation. In fact, two of the three pillars of the European program and numerous instruments are aimed to promote and develop innovation processes. Despite the resources committed by the H2020 program and various national and regional programs, the effects on society and the productive system are in many cases below expectations. An emblematic case is that of nanotechnologies, which have the potential to strongly affect vital fields such as healthcare, energy, environment and manufacturing. To unlock potential benefits at the most, it is necessary to reduce the ‘valley of death’ and enhance the track record in transforming breakthroughs into commercially valuable innovations. Meeting these challenges involves understanding the internal (to the innovation process) and external (related to the surrounding environment) bottlenecks of the innovation cycle. Europe is therefore in need of studies aiming at developing an analytical framework for offering a novel perspective on innovation in nanotechnologies and for strengthening their systemic economic impact. In the present talks is based on the analysis of the situation following two main way the studies undertaken by EC and the evaluation of specific case. The European scenario on nanotechnology innovation is pointed out as well the main challenges and obstacles are analyzed in order to stimulate a participating discussion and promote further studies to support the EU innovation processes on nanotechnology field.