Transferring science-based technologies to industry-Does nanotechnology make a difference?

Nanotechnology is argued to be a potential engine for economic growth in the 21st century due to its general purpose technology-related characteristics. These enormous expectations find expression mostly in large public R&D expenditures and increasing numbers of scientific publications suggest these. This paper aims to clarify some aspects of these expectations by investigating whether nanotechnology relates to unique motivations, interactions, challenges and outcomes when commercializing scientific knowledge. By identifying these aspects, we aim to establish whether there is a need for nanotechnology-specific policies to facilitate nanotechnology transfer from universities to firms. We use individual-level survey data covering university researchers in the Finnish nanotechnology community. The results suggest that the university researchers more active in nanotechnology are endowed with motivations, show interactions and face challenges which are different from other disciplines. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.