Projects
Slovenian Innovation Hubs is leading several activities with one single purpose - to connect academia with business and create better tommorrow. One of such projects is Slovenian Nanotechnology Platform (NanoPlatform), which is marking the Hub as a national referential point for any questions regarding nanotechnology.Purpose: To bring together industry, research, networks, NGOs at all levels for a joint movement towards a new industry. It will create an environment where all there different entities are able to interact and come out with a shared vision on nanotechnology directions in Slovenia.
The NanoPlatform was founded on 13th of June 2017. For this event we kindly invited INIC, Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council, as our honoured guests. They introduced their example of good praxis, which shot Iran into one of the leading nanotechnological forces. In their speach they welcomed slovenian progress in the field of connecting nanotechnological players.
Nanotechnology represents the “key technology” of the 21st century and the expectancy for innovations in the environmental sector is significantly high. The word “nanotechnology” includes a wide range of technologies performed on a nanometer scale for widespread applications. The main difference between a nano-material and a larger-scale-material is the significantly larger specific surface area which grants an increase in the chemical reactivity and/or a change to the physicial properties of the material.
Starting point 1: European Nanotechnology Strategy, published in 2004, which has not been fully realized. There are many reasons for that and NanoPlatform will address some of them.
Starting point 2: Nano-activities in different segments (research, regulative, safety, etc.) are not coordinated and not well connected. All that is diasbling development of nanotechnologies in Slovenia as well. Nano-safety represents one of the fields where it comes to several misunderstandings. Those misunderstandings are seen as a result of a gap between those who create knowledge and those who use it in industry.
The market success of nanotechnology applications depends very much on the development of corresponding standards, which clarify not only terminology, measurement and testing methods, but also regulate safety and health aspects and specify interfaces. The impact of standards within businesses and their supply chains are less well understood, and the same is true of the public sector: there is sometimes a lack of awareness and information about the impact of applying standards to public policies.
For now four key priorities on nanotechplatform have been confirmed by the stakeholders:
- nanotechnology-based innovations,
- regulation and standardization in the field of nanotechnology,
- nanosafety
- dissemination of knowledge.