RTB année 2008 (ANR-08-RTBA-0002)

In 2003, the French Ministry of Research expressed the need for a national initiative in nanosciences and nanotechnologies in order to increase the competitiveness of the national research community in this field. Indeed, it is generally accepted that the ability to model, image, manipulate matter at micro and nanoscale is leading to new technologies that impact many sectors of the economy including information and communications, healthcare, transportations, energy and security. The Ministry launched with the “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)” and the “Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA2)”, a dedicated programme entitled A national network of large technological facilities and Basic Technological Research in micro and nanotechnologies to be named as the RTB programme throughout this document. The RTB programme covered three main fields: -The development of competitive clean-room infrastructures, able to provide the support and technologies needed for the national research activities of the national community in the field of micro and nanotechnologies; -The training of PhDs and post-docs in technological facilities; -The production of IP activity in nanotechnology for future exploitation through industry. It involves a network of 6 academic (CNRS and universities) facilities distributed over France belonging to the “RENATECH” network (www.renatech.org) and associated to a large facility, CEA-Leti (www.leti.fr), located in Grenoble and dedicated to technological developments targeting transfer to industry. Mainly supported by an investment plan, the results of the RTB programme are reviewed each year by an international panel on the basis of the leverage for the scientific and industrial community and the progress of the networking activity.