June 21, 2005 — The Foresight Nanotech Institute, a Palo Alto, Calif. think tank, and Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio manager of labs and technology commercialization, announced today that they have launched the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems. The effort was funded through an initial grant of $250,000 from the Waitt Family Foundation, a foundation started by Gateway founder Ted Waitt.

The group defines productive nanosystems as “molecular-scale systems that make other useful materials and devices that are nanostructured,” according to a news release. The Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems is intended to provide a “common framework for understanding the pathways for developing such systems, the challenges that must be overcome in their development and the applications that they can address,” the release said. It is also intended to help people formulate research and commercialization agendas.

The intended audiences for the roadmap include governments, corporations, research institutions, investors, economic development organizations, public policy professionals, educators and the media.

The process will involve a series of workshops, the first of which is slated for late this summer. The group aims to complete the roadmap in late 2006. It is currently assembling a steering committee comprised of scientists, businesspeople, lab managers and investment and finance experts. The committee will guide the roadmap’s development.

Organizations that are slated to participate in the roadmap’s development include NanoBusiness Alliance, the Nano Science and Technology Institute, SEMI, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.