NANORUCER

is a support action funded by the EU under FP7 for 2 years from 1st September 2009 (Grant Number: NMP4-SA-2009-248178): Mapping the NANOtechnology innovastion system of Russia for preparing future Cooperations between the EU and Russia.

Nanotechnology and nanosciences are often referred to as "key" or "enabling" since they can pervade almost all technological sectors, and accordingly are expected to influence almost all industries in the 21 st century. Examples include medical applications (such as drug delivery devices), information technology (including e. g. data storage media), energy production and storage (dealing e. g. with novel fuel cells), manufacturing, instrumentation and environmental applications (such as e. g. new remediation approaches based on photo-catalytic techniques). In order to support the exploitation of the potentials of nanotechnology and nanosciences, considerable amounts have been invested into the development of nanotechnology. Already in 2005 the word-wide private and public investment into nanotechnology has been estimated to approximately 9 billion €. Since a number of years the European Commission has taken various initiatives to support the development of nanotechnology and nanosciences. In particular the nanotechnology strategy from 2004 and the resulting action plan 2005 to 2009 are important corner stones of these activities. A first implementation report of the action plan was published in 2007 followed by a second implementation report published in October 2009 (COM(2009)607).  

International cooperation with Third Countries including Russia is an important part of the European strategy. Accordingly, the 2009 work programme of NMP included a coordinated call with Russia on nanotechnology-based sensors with a total EU funding of 4.65 million € and comparable funding from the Russian Federation. Three specific applications have been defined in this call: optical-chemical sensing with nanoparticles, nano-waveguides and photonic structures; wireless surface acoustic wave physical sensors for operation in a wide temperature range; sensing of toxic and explosive agents in air based on metal-oxide semiconductor nano-structured materials.  

A further topic was specified in this call for a support action on the "mapping of nanotechnology and nano-structured materials research infrastructures in Russia". The NANORUCER project was selected from this call. NANORUCER will perform an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the Russian nanotechnology innovations system and a mapping of research activities in Russia on nanotechnology and nano-structured materials. A systematic comparison with corresponding EU activities will allow to identify opportunities for future EU-Russia cooperation.