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• With Singapore firmly focused on the Future Economy, The Straits Times' series, Fast Forward: Disruption and the Singapore Economy, helps you make sense of the big shifts that will shake up entire sectors, reshape jobs and change lives. Every Saturday for 12 weeks, the paper's journalists will examine a disruptive force, its likely impact on the economy and how soon that will be felt. From robotics, 3D printing and smart buildings to dire demographic trends, the global skills revolution and the Asean growth story.

  Next week, find out what new air travel patterns spell for Changi's future.

It is difficult, however, to put a number on the size of the nanotech sector here. That is partly because of the way national funds for science and research are allocated. The NRF does not have a separate category for nanoscience and nanotech because it regards them as "horizontal enablers" that span different disciplines.

The NRF does, however, expect current funding mechanisms, such as its Competitive Research Programme (CRP), to continue to support research in this field. In fact, a quick check of the 68 research projects funded by the CRP since its inception in 2007 finds that more than 25 per cent are related to nanotechnology.

START-UPS WANT IN TOO

Academic institutions may be doing much of the heavy lifting, but nanotech start-ups here are also receiving more support.

Salus Nanotechnologies, for instance, has an investment offer from local venture capital firm Red Dot Ventures under the NRF's Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS), in which the Government funds up to $500,000 for qualifying start-ups. This is Red Dot Venture's first proposed investment in the nanotech sector.

Mr Leslie Loh, managing director of Red Dot, says: "In our pipeline, nanotechnology hopefuls compete alongside other highly technical businesses.

"Salus Nanotechnologies earned Red Dot Ventures' support because they are easily scalable across multiple verticals, address an immediate market need, and fit well within existing customer processes."

If the funding is approved, Salus will get a total of $589,000 to fund manpower and other operational needs.

Mr Loh highlighted the importance of public-private co-investment schemes, such as TIS, as they encourage venture capitalists to take greater risks in supporting emerging technologies.

"Nanotech inventors and entrepreneurs rely on publicly available funds because of the expensive nature of nanotechnologies," he adds.

He believes the sector will continue to grow due to three factors - first, technology is optimised through nano-scale manipulations; second, nanotechnology manufacturing gets cheaper; and third, government funding continues.

"We predict the sectors the Singapore Government supports as part of Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020's (RIE2020) spending portfolio will be the sectors that nanotechnology commercialisation will be greatest," he says.

He is referring to the four main sectors identified in RIE2020, the NRF's funding programme which has allocated $19 billion towards research and development over the next five years.

These four main sectors are advanced manufacturing and engineering, health and biomedical sciences, services and digital economy and urban solutions and sustainability.

RIPE FOR REVIEW

Dr Alex Lin, head of Infocomm Investments, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's venture capital unit, has a different, more pessimistic view of nanotech's trajectory. He says the high entry cost of nanotechnology currently puts it out of reach for most applications, and it remains difficult to scale up.

The equipment needed for nanotechnology - such as electron microscopes - are expensive, and many nanomaterials can currently be produced only in small quantities.

IBN's Prof Ying, who applies nanotech in bioengineering, believes that more can be done to further drive progress here.

"In many countries, including the US, nanotechnology is so special that it is a line item in the budget," she says.

Take as an example the 2017 US Federal Budget which will provide more than US$1.4 billion for the country's National Nanotechnology Initiative. US-based inventors also lead the world in nanotechnology patent applications and grants, accounting for 54 per cent of them, according to a 2012 study by the law firm of McDermott, Will and Emery. By contrast, Asian inventors account for 24 per cent.

Prof Ying says that with more funding in nanotechnology, researchers here in institutes like the IBN, which she heads, will be able to set up more spin-off companies to bring their innovations to the masses.

In this respect, Prof Ying thinks Singapore is still too risk-averse. In biomedical research, for example, there is good funding for the research phase but that dries up come time for clinical trials that involve administering drugs or nanoparticles to humans, as chances of success are lower. But such trials are important steps towards commercialisation.

NanoGlobe's Dr Liu says adoption of nanotechnology in consumer products in Singapore is not as quick as in countries like China and Japan which have greater manufacturing capacity. She says that investors here still see more opportunities in information technology and software rather than in hardcore engineering.

"Singapore does not have this manufacturing value chain to take what's developed in the laboratory to the market," she adds.

That is an area ripe for review as Singapore works out how best to position itself for the economy of the future. As Dr Liu points out, "nanotechnology is coming to maturity and it is going to disrupt a lot of stuff".