The Brazilian National Nanotechnology Laboratory and the National Centre for Research in Nanotechnology Engineering of China are due Wednesday to sign a cooperation programme to share the benefits of future patents, officials said in Brasilia.

According to a statement from the Brazilian Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the document will be signed during a trip to China by an official delegation, which includes representatives of the technical and scientific commission of the Brazil-China Centre for Research and Innovation in Nanotechnology (CBC-Nano).

The agreement is part of the memorandum of understanding signed by the MCTI and the Chinese Ministry for Science and Technology during the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

According to the United States’ National Foundation for Science the nanotechnology market is worth US$300 billion each year, and it is expected to reach a trillion dollars by 2015, and three times that figure by 2020.

The head of the mission to China, Adalberto Fazzio, special advisor to the Brazilian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Marco Antonio Raupp, said that the initial idea was for the two institutes to carry out joint research projects in the long term in the fields of the environment, energy conservation and reducing emissions, new materials such as biomass for energy, functional materials such as sensors for health, as well as applying nanotechnology in agriculture and meteorology.

Transfer of scientific and technological knowledge, training human resources in both countries and promoting exchange are the remaining aims of the programme. (macauhub)

Source: macauhub