Third Annual Report on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Latin America


Publication

Draft version 11 March 2011

The report will be available for download at www.icpc-nanonet.org

Editors

Rachel Newton, Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI) –

Author

Ineke Malsch, Malsch TechnoValuation –

About ICPCNanoNet

The ICPC NanoNet project is funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme and aims to provide wider access to published Nanoscience and Nanotechnology research and opportunities for collaboration between organisations and scientists in the EU and International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC). Read more at www.icpc-nanonet.org and www.nanoarchive.org.

The ICPCNanoNet consortium consists of:

The Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) - www.nano.org.uk

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (Portugal) - www.spi.pt

St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University (Russia) - www.eltech.ru

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (India) - www.jncasr.ac.in

Chinese Society of Micro-Nano Technology (China) - www.csmnt.org.cn

MERIT of Universiteit Maastricht (Netherlands) - www.merit.unu.edu

Malsch TechnoValuation (Netherlands) - www.malsch.demon.nl

NanoAfNet (Africa)

For further information please contact Lesley Tobin:

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary 1

1.1. About this report 1

1.2. Countries covered in this report 1

1.3. Potential areas for collaborative activities 2

1.4. N&N publications 3

1.5. Regional initiatives 3

1.6. Most recent and current developments in N&N activity and future plans 3

2. Introduction 4

3. N&N Publications 5

Regional Initiatives 10

Regional Initiatives 10

3.1. Activities of regional organizations and networks 10

3.2. Developments in S&T agreements 15

3.3. Multi-country funding programmes 15

4. Argentina 18

4.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 18

Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 22

5. Bolivia 23

5.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 23

5.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 23

6. Brazil 24

6.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 24

6.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 30

7. Chile 34

7.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 34

7.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 35

8. Colombia 38

8.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 38

8.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 40

9. Costa Rica 42

9.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 42

9.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 44

10. Ecuador 45

10.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 45

10.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 46

11. Guatemala 48

11.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 48

11.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 48

12. Mexico 50

12.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 50

12.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 53

13. Peru 56

13.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 56

13.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 57

14. Uruguay 59

14.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 59

14.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 63

15. Venezuela 65

15.1. Overview of recent and current N&N activity and future plans 65

15.2. Recent activities in different thematic areas in N&N 68

16. Common themes for clusters of countries within and outwith the regions 70

Appendices (update from second annual report) 1

i Other significant individuals 1

see the researchers database at www.icpc-nanonet.org 1

ii Other organisations 1

iii Details of conferences and workshops (June 2010 onwards) 2

Third Annual Report on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Latin America

ICPCNanoNet Region Report on Latin America

1.  Executive Summary

1.1.  About this report

This report, provided in the context of the ICPCNanoNet project, is the third of four annual reports that aim to describe the situation with regard to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N) in the International Co-operation Partner Countries (ICPC) of Latin America. It is designed to provide support to the development of collaborative activities between the EU and this region. In this context, it draws on an assessment of the facilities and expertise available, the existing projects, programmes, and networks as well as the existing collaborations in order to identify potential areas of synergy for mutually beneficial collaboration. This report presents new developments since the publishing of the second annual report introduces further analysis regarding promising areas for collaborative activities.

1.2.  Countries covered in this report

The region itself encompasses 17 international partnership co-operation countries, as identified by the European Commission.[1]

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica / Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua / Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela

However, the scope of this report is limited to those countries where there are national initiatives, institutes, organisations and researchers currently involved in N&N research and development or prospects of these. They are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

1.3.  Potential areas for collaborative activities

Suggested content:

Draw together the analysis made for each of the countries in the region into an overall analysis of potential areas for collaboration of researchers from this region with the EU. This analysis could be achieved by comparing the N&N research taking place in the region with the technologies available in Europe to identify synergies or complementarities. The basis for the comparison could be to use information provided on N&N S&T areas in the ObservatoryNano project as well as other European sources such as current FP7 projects demonstrating state of the art R&D in N&N in Europe and comparing this with the N&N taking place in the region. The sectors chosen in the ObservatoryNano project (aerospace, automotive, and transport; agrifood; chemistry and materials; construction; energy; environment; health, medicine and nanobio; ICT; security; textiles) as well as topics such as nanoethics; environment, health and safety; regulation and standards could be useful to group areas.

In the explanation of a selected potential area of collaboration it would seem relevant to include a justification of why the particular area is important i.e. what societal problem does it address. It would also seem to be relevant to include in this justification the way in which the particular research topic could contribute to solving the problem (emphasising relevance to the region and to Europe) and the current status. Finally, the analysis could include an explanation of the research that would be necessary to achieve this (or at least the next stage in the research based on the current state of the art) so that the reader ends up with an idea of a specific topic of research that would be logical, and beneficial to undertake using through the collaboration of researchers from Europe and the region in question.

1.4.  N&N publications

Suggested content: A summary of the most interesting aspects drawn from chapter 3 on N&N publications.

1.5.  Regional initiatives

Suggested content: A summary of the most important activities of regional N&N related organisations and networks, developments in S&T agreements, projects/proposals in multi-country funding programmes with a focus within this region since the first national report was published. These will be described in more depth in Chapter 4.

1.6.  Most recent and current developments in N&N activity and future plans

Suggested content: A summary of most the most important developments in N&N activity in the past year in each of the countries of the region for which N&N activity was identified.

2.  Introduction

This report is the third of four annual reports that aim to describe the national conditions and realities for N&N in the ICPCs of Latin America from the perspective of providing support to collaborative activities between the countries of this region and the EU. It is one of a collection of annual reports covering the following eight ICPC regions across the world: Africa, (East/West) Asia, Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, Mediterranean Partner Countries, the Pacific, and Western Balkan Countries. Subsequent annual reports will provide updates regarding future N&N developments in this region. Other key activities of ICPC NanoNet include:

•  Creation of an electronic archive of nanoscience publications that is freely accessible to researchers around the globe - www.nanoarchive.org

•  Development of an electronic database of nanoscience organizations and networks in ICPC, accessible through the project website - www.ICPC-nanonet.org

•  Links to nanoscience researchers and stakeholders across the globe

•  Provision of online tools (forums, e-meeting services, webcasting) to facilitate networking between scientists in different regions of the world

•  Organisation of annual workshops - one each in the Czech Republic (during EU Presidency), China, India, and Russia - all of which will be webcast to facilitate greater access.

The report is structured as follows:

•  Chapter 1 presented the Executive summary;

•  Chapter 2 (this chapter) provides an introduction to the report;

•  Chapter 3 comments on the N&N publications from the region;

•  Chapter 4 describes the activities of regional initiatives and networks, developments in S&T agreements between the countries of the region, as well as those of regional funding programmes during the last year;

•  Chapter 5 onwards are separate reports on specific ICPC countries in Latin America providing insight into their N&N activity during the past year including an analysis of potential areas for collaborative activities.

3.  N&N Publications

Figure 1: Trend in total nanotechnology publications in 8 most prolific Latin American countries 1998-2009. Source MERIT.

As before, in 2009, the most prolific country in nanotechnology in Latin America was Brazil, followed at some distance by Mexico and Argentina. Chile and Colombia also published well over 100 papers, and Venezuela, Uruguay and Peru contributed dozens of papers. Most of the top-8 increased the numbers of papers published in 2009 compared to 2008. Only Colombia and Venezuela decreased their total number of publications. See figure 1 above. As shown in table 1 below, eight other Latin American countries displayed minor activity in nanotechnology.

total publications / % of world
2008 / 2009 / 1998-2009 / 2008 / 2009 / 1998-2009
Brazil / 1640 / 1716 / 12578 / 1,94% / 1,33% / 1,69%
Mexico / 726 / 765 / 5516 / 0,86% / 0,59% / 0,74%
Argentina / 451 / 526 / 3625 / 0,53% / 0,41% / 0,49%
Chile / 183 / 229 / 1420 / 0,22% / 0,18% / 0,19%
Colombia / 165 / 152 / 821 / 0,20% / 0,12% / 0,11%
Venezuela / 72 / 66 / 658 / 0,09% / 0,05% / 0,09%
Uruguay / 25 / 30 / 219 / 0,03% / 0,02% / 0,03%
Peru / 13 / 19 / 133 / 0,02% / 0,01% / 0,02%
Costa Rica / 13 / 9 / 84 / 0,02% / 0,01% / 0,01%
Ecuador / 5 / 9 / 46 / 0,01% / 0,01% / 0,01%
Panama / 3 / 0 / 33 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Bolivia / 2 / 4 / 23 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Guatemala / 1 / 2 / 6 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Honduras / 1 / 0 / 3 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Nicaragua / 1 / 0 / 3 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Paraguay / 0 / 1 / 3 / 0,00% / 0,00% / 0,00%
Total LA / 3301 / 3528 / 25171 / 3,91% / 2,73% / 3,39%
World total / 84342 / 129012 / 743573 / 100,00% / 100,00% / 100,00%

Table 1: Total numbers and percentages of nanotechnology publications in 16 Latin American countries in 2008 and 2009, and the sum total for the twelve-year period 1998-2009. Source: MERIT.

Even though the four most prolific Latin American countries published more articles in 2009 than in 2008, their share of the world total dropped significantly as illustrated in table 1 above. All of Latin America published 2.73% of all nanotechnology publications in 2009 compared to 3.91% in 2008. The percentage in 2009 was also lower than the twelve year average over 1998-2009. The reason could be that other countries became more active.

Most popular topics

In 2009, the largest number of publications by Latin American authors was relevant to the Energy sector, followed by that for Chemistry & Materials and Agrifood. All three sectors were the topic of over 150 papers. The sectors Construction, Environment, Security and Aerospace & Automotive each were targeted by 50-100 Latin American papers. Health, medicine & bio, ICT and Textiles were least popular among Latin American authors in 2009. Compared to 2008, Environment became more popular than Security and Textiles became more popular than ICT.

Figure 2: Total numbers of Latin American publications relevant to applications in ten sectors. Source MERIT.

The relative specialisation of Latin America compared to the world gives another picture. Taking the percentage of Latin American publications of total publications in each sector, it appears that Agrifood, Environment, Energy and Aerospace & Automotive received above average interest from Latin American authors in 2009. Interest in ICT, Textiles, Chemistry & Materials, Construction, Health, Medicine & Bio and Security was less than average in 2009. Compared to 2008, in all sectors the share of Latin American authors decreased from on average 2.74% to 2.59%. The most remarkable decrease was in ICT applications, from 3.19% to 2.52% (from well above to below average). The most remarkable increase was in Health, Medicine & Bio (from 1.38% to 1.81%).

Figure 3: Percentages of Latin American publications compared to world totals in ten sectors in 2008 and 2009. Source: MERIT.

In the period 2007-2009, the thirteen highest ranking institutes published notably more nanotechnology publications than other institutes. The top-13 included seven Brazilian, two Mexican and four Argentinean institutes. These institutes are either umbrella organisations with several institutes or campuses, or large universities.