Scandinavia's material gains

With the launch this month of two virtual centres dedicated to nanotechnology, Scandinavia is staking its claim as a hot spot for materials science. Based in Denmark and Norway, the facilities look set to create research and training positions for several hundred materials scientists.

In Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark unveiled NANO·DTU, which will be one of Europe's largest nanoscience centres. Currently it employs about 100 researchers, including postdocs and 40 PhD students. But this is likely to increase to help the university compete for the anticipated rise in government funds for nanotechnology, says physicist Jens Nørskov, the centre's director. “We are gearing up so that we will present ourselves as a good place to invest, should the Danish government choose to invest more in nanotechnology,” he says.

The chief physical attraction at the centre is the newly built DANCHIP, a 1,000-square-metre clean room. Equipped with atomic force microscopy and nanolithography tools, the room will allow researchers to etch nanomachines as small as 10 nanometres.

Nørskov says that the new facilities, combined with a new BSc in nanotechnology, should help to attract undergraduates who lately have been shying away from physics and chemistry. “We're trying to make our curriculum interesting to young people,” he says.

And in Norway, the University of Oslo has opened the doors on its Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN). Arising as the result of a reorganization in the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences, the centre features six research groups across four buildings.

The most tangible investment in the virtual centre is the Micro- and Nanotechnology laboratory (MINA-lab), a NKr232-million (US$33.7-million) 6,000-square-metre facility, with a clean room.

The SMN will employ 18 permanent staff, but with technicians, administrators, students and postdocs, the total effort will feature some 90 people. Like the Danish initiative, the SMN aims to improve international recruitment into Scandinavian nanotech. It will also focus on using nanotechnology and functional materials for sustainable energy production, one focus of the Norwegian government's research priorities.