For Industrial Users

Since the inception of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2001, significant advances have been made in the fundamental understanding of nanostructured materials. These important discoveries have led to an increasing variety of nanotechnology-enhanced commercial products. However, the full benefit of nanotechnology has yet to be realized. Clarifying the scientific basis for novel nanomaterial properties and responsibly translating this knowledge into practical applications are, together, the innovation engine for transformational nanotechnologies.

The NSRC Program enables and accelerates nanotechnology development by maintaining a comprehensive suite of essential research capabilities, providing expert staff, and developing the next generation of techniques and instruments to synthesize, characterize, and theoretically understand novel nanostructured materials.

These resources are available to individuals and teams from private-sector companies for either pre-competitive research or proprietary research through the normal peer reviewed user proposal process. User proposals containing proprietary information can be protected using appropriate non-disclosure agreements. There is no fee to conduct pre-competitive research and, consequently, public dissemination of the research findings is required. Proprietary user projects do not require the publication of research results, enable the user to retain intellectual property rights to the extent allowed by Federal regulations, and require full cost recovery for NSRC access from the user’s institution. For more information on proprietary research, please contact the specific NSRC facility of interest.

As an NSRC User, you will have easy access to sophisticated scientific instrumentation, integrated suites of techniques and equipment, world-class scientific expertise, and leading scientists and engineers in nanoscience and nanotechnology. NSRC staff members are available to help you formulate a research proposal involving one or more capabilities. We encourage you to explore the breadth of NSRC capabilities summarized on this NSRC website, follow the links for capabilities of interest for more detailed information, and contact our scientists to explore the feasibility of a research project relevant to your application interests. Please refer to the general information about becoming a User on this NSRC portal and contact the NSRC facility websites of interest for detailed information about submitting an NSRC user proposal.