What is the Texas Alliance for Nanotechnology?

The Texas Alliance for Nanotechnology (TxAN) is a broad alliance of organizations that strongly support advancing Texas’ ability to research, develop and commercialize nanotechnology. Research areas such as nanoelectronics, nanomaterials, nanostructures, and nanomedicine will be critical to our quality of life and our state’s prosperity as the 21st century unfolds, but the competition for leadership in these job-producing fields is intense and global. For that reason, TxAN is committed to ensuring that Texas emerges a winner in the race for the research funding, R&D facilities, and industries driven by nanotechnology.

Why Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology holds the promise to revolutionize science and industry. TxAN defines nanotechnology as the study, design and manufacture of devices, materials and systems at the molecular level—with features so small that they are measured in atomic dimensions. Nanotechnology stands at the center of the technology convergence of IT/wireless, energy, aerospace, defense and medicine. We already see promising results in labs today that can dramatically improve people’s lives. Continuing advances in these fields and getting these breakthroughs to the marketplace will power Texas’ future economic growth and guarantee a high quality of life—a vision best achieved through close collaboration among our state’s industries, governments, and research institutions.

TxAN’s Goals:

Our objectives are designed to make Texas a leading world center of nanotechnology research, business development and employment. We support efforts that:

• Maintain top nanotechnology research talent and leading-edge infrastructure in Texas
• Cultivate a world-class nanotechnology workforce in Texas and create the high-wage jobs to employ them
• Facilitate government, academia, and industry collaborations centered on nanotechnology or related technologies
• Communicate the benefits of Texas leadership in nanotechnology to elected officials, business leaders, students, and citizens of the state
• Support legislation and policies that accelerate nanotechnology research, development and commercialization
• Catalyze the creation of a network of nanotechnology research infrastructure made up of the state’s best researchers and facilities—with access, procedures, and policies that offer an unprecedented capability to innovate

Making it Happen: Establishing a new “State Lab” Focused on Nanotechnology

To ensure our state’s position in the field of nanotechnology, TxAN has recruited a statewide team of university and industry leaders to design the model for a new “state laboratory” focused on nanotechnology.  The key objective is to link leading Texas nanotech research laboratories, superior talent, and nano-fabrication facilities into a powerful R&D and commercialization network. The new “state laboratory” will leverage the equipment set and manufacturing know-how of SEMATECH’s Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF).

TxAN goals for the proposed state lab include:

• An upgrade of the nanotechnology-related infrastructure and equipment available to Texas researchers to state-of-the-art status
• Shared access to facilities among universities, large and small companies, and consortia
• Improved proof-of-concept and prototyping capabilities for commercialization of early stage intellectual property (IP)
• Streamlined IP and equipment access policies among participants in the state lab
• Increased opportunities for university students and researchers to engage with industry
• Comprehensive nanotechnology  workforce training
• Increased collaboration with federal agency labs to attract more federal funds to Texas

TxAN’s Track Record

TxAN has already been the catalyst for some notable accomplishments for Texas. Examples include:

Creating a workforce development program for Texas students–the NanoScholar Workforce Development Initiative between Austin Community College, Texas State Technical College (TSTC), and SEMATECH/ATDF ($4M federal funding)

Partnering with industry to establish the headquarters of the SouthWest Academy for Nanoelectronics (SWAN) in Texas, one of only three such centers in the United States

Creating a $30M industry-university-state partnership to recruit world-class researchers to Texas

Developing a plan for federal agency (NIST, NASA, DOE) consideration to build a leveraged American Competitiveness Initiative pilot program in Texas

Initiating a cross-industry nanotechnology mapping process to identify research areas that can support product development needs in multiple high-tech industries important to Texas and the nation.

Want to know more about TxAN?

For more information about the Texas Alliance for Nanoelectronics, contact us at info@txan.net