Nanotechnology ‘may be worth €13bn’

IRELAND stands to make up to €13 billion by 2010 by becoming a world leader in revolutionary new technology, a leading scientific body said yesterday.

The Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI), which is part of enterprise policy agency Forfas, said Ireland was well placed to become a centre for nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is the set of techniques used to manipulate very small quantities of material to create devices with new or improved qualities. The activity draws on expertise in physics, chemistry and electronics and deals with quantities that measure less than a billionth of a metre, or less than 1% of the diameter of a human hair.