Europe Still In Danger of Missing the Boat – Yawn….

Irelands Marks & Clerk have released an analysis of the nanotech patent landscape, noting that “Europe is in danger of missing the boat on commercial returns in Nanotechnology”, which the Scotsman interprets as a warning that “Scottish universities are in danger of missing out on commercial returns in nanotechnology.”

We always like to read these reports as if the word ‘nano’ had been removed, and see if they lose anything by it. In the case of most of the conclusions, the answer is no. Europe is historically terrible at linking academic R&D with commercial success, Asia does dominate micro electronics and Japanese car manufacturers do dominate hybrid motor technology.

Its a nicely done report, and well worth a look, but as with all general “nanotech’ reports, we often wonder whether the nano world is so broad and diverse as to render the conclusions worthless.