Composite background image: biotechnology, nanotechnology, converging technologies, statistics and indicators, policy assessment

Visualisation of Technology Convergence

The report provides a summary of trends and developments in biotechnology and nanotechnology over the last 20 to 25 years, based on the longitudinal analyses of patents.
In addition, an experimental indicator, which aims to identify trends and developments of research areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology, was introduced: publication titles of the two technology fields were analysed using a text-mining approach, and an overlay map of the most often use keyword co-occurrences was created, in order to visualise the developments over time in each research area.

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Genome Editing – Opportunities & Challenges

Gene editing techniques are a major advance that could have major benefits across the domains of human health, sustainability and the economy that go beyond incremental advances of past biotechnologies. There are, however, significant policy challenges at the national and international level related to the governance of gene editing. These issues were addressed at a Workshop held in Ottawa, Canada, on September 29-30, 2016.

Development in nanotechnology patent applications, 1990-2012 (number of IP5 patent families by inventor’s country and priority date; see also: NOTE and SOURCE below) [Source (adapted): Steffi Friedrichs, OECD STI Working Papers, 2018/06]

New statistical Definitions of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology

Agreement on a harmonised application of clear statistical definitions of technologies is pertinent to the delineation of technology fields both with regard to each other and within the context of wider economic developments.
This document represents a review of hitherto used statistical definitions of biotechnology and nanotechnology, and provides recommendations for the application of these definitions for statistical purposes.

Nanotechnology in the Next Production Revolution

This OECD landmark publication examines the opportunities and challenges, for business and government, associated with technologies bringing about the “next production revolution”.
Within the variety of influential technologies analysed in the report, Dr Steffi Friedrichs explores the role that nanotechnologies will play: in a Chapter entitled “Tapping nanotechnology’s potential to shape the next production revolution”, she explains that “[n]anotechnology has the potential to enable further innovations and establish new market sectors in the near future.”