On April 9, 2026, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) published its supplement to the President’s 2026 budget request. The report provides the program budget for fiscal years (FY) 2024 and 2025, as well as the requested budget for 2026. As required, it also provides a breakout of NNI’s plans and spending by NNI Program Component Area — foundational research; applications, devices, and systems; research infrastructure and instrumentation; education and workforce development; and responsible development of nanotechnology. The report includes selected examples of progress toward NNI’s goals, information on how federal agencies are using the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs to promote commercialization and deployment of nanotechnology, and a discussion of the latest external evaluation of NNI by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).
The report states that nanotechnology research and development (R&D) coordinated under the auspices of the NNI “is fundamental to advancing the Trump Administration’s R&D priority of ensuring unrivalled American leadership in critical and emerging technologies.” According to the report, progress in artificial intelligence, quantum information science, semiconductors and microelectronics, advanced communications networks, future computing technologies, and advanced manufacturing depends on nanoscale science and engineering. The report notes that nanotechnology R&D “also underpins efforts to unleash American energy dominance, strengthen American security, safeguard American health and biotechnology, and assure America’s continued space dominance.”
