The funds, to be spread over a five-year period, will target two main areas: nanomaterials research and nanoelectronics development, said Chen Tien-yuan, deputy director of the planning division at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, which will run the program. About 100 researchers will initially be involved, but that number may grow as ITRI reaches out to buttress the program with academic and industry partnerships, Chen said.

So far, ITRI is in talks with United Microelectronics Corp., Taiwan's second largest IC foundry. "We are hoping they will send some researchers," Chen said, "but no decisions have been made." The government-backed research institution is also hoping to woo two of the island's top universities, National Taiwan University in Taipei and Tsinghua University in Hsinchu. Foreign partners will also be sought.

Early on, the center will focus on developing core competencies in several areas. Among them will be devising means to assess the characterizations of nanostructures with advanced 2-D and 3-D measurements at the atomic resolution level. The researchers will be exploring the behavior of quantum dots, super-lattices and the creation and application of basic nanoparticles, wires and tubes. Thereafter, they will move to determine how to manipulate and control the structures.

Within five to 10 years, the center plans to have successful applications in nanoelectronic chips, energy storage systems such as batteries and fuel cells that will run mobile devices for months, and flat-panel displays using field emitters made of nanowires.

The national push into develop nanotechnology comes at a time when researchers in Japan and the United States have already made significant strides in the field. Late last month, IBM Corp. said it had developed a logic circuit within a molecule while a team of Japanese professors at Osaka University touted a less costly way to develop nanochains. Both acknowledged that the results were far from ready for mass production of circuits on the factory floor.

Taiwan has had smaller projects researching nanoscale devices, such as the National Nano Device Laboratories in Hsinchu, a project sponsored by the cabinet-level National Science Council. "We started research a few years ago but only in academia. I think we have to catch up," said NSC chairman Wei Che-ho. "This joint project will help us focus the separate efforts" and move more quickly toward the rollout of commercial applications," he said.

The NSC will also fund more research at universities, but will spend only about one-tenth of ITRI's budget. Wei said getting UMC on board would be a big vote of confidence in the project.