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Nanotechnology is expected to have a major impact on global economies this century and has been recognised by the European Union (EU) as having an important role in achieving the Lisbon Strategy of making the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010". To achieve this, the EU has set the goal of each member state committing 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to research and development (R&D) by 2010. Europe has been historically poor, compared with other world regions, at translating R&D into products, processes and services, and reversing this trend is central to the Lisbon strategy. Key to achieving this will be the active participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are seen as a major source of innovation and entrepreneurship, and could help Europe to better capitalise on its world-class research.

According to the European Commission (EC), a SME is an enterprise which:

· has no more than 250 employees;

· has no more than 25% equity owned by a non-SME;

· has an annual turnover of no more than €50M or a balance sheet total not exceeding €43M;

· is not a research organisation or consultant.

SMEs play a major role in the European economy accounting for over 99% of all enterprises, with an estimated total workforce of 75 million employed in some 23 million separate enterprises. However due to their small size, they can often struggle to raise finance and support from traditional financial institutions, making competition on the international market particularly difficult. In recognition of this the EU integrated specific support measures for SMEs in the sixth Framework Programme (FP6), which amounted to approximately 1700 million euros between 2002 and 2006. With all calls for FP6 now closed it remains to be seen what its successor will offer. However it is clear that SMEs will continue to attract specific support, and the results of several EU-funded initiatives (in particular two FP6 projects: NanoRoadMap and NanoRoad SME) provide an analysis of the current status of EU nanotechnology SMEs, their requirements and future market opportunities in several key sectors.

These webpages have been published to assist SMEs that are developing nanotechnology products and processes, to identify relevant support programmes and organisations. This information will be regularly updated, however users can also download the Nanoforum report "European Support for Nanotechnology Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" which was published in December 2005.

technical realisation:
VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH

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