Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ratio is 80.2%, ranking 54th worldwide. There is great variety in quality
of higher education in Mexico with great differences between public
and private universities. There are no data on access to higher education
and research jobs in nanotechnology for deprived groups in Mexico.
6.
Target research to poverty and health-related problems and environmental
sustainability:
The housing sector is interested in applications of nano-
technology. In the diagnostic report on nanotechnology in Mexico
and other advisory reports, applications including water purifica-
tion, cheap housing, etc., are mentioned; however, no data are avail-
able on how much effort is really deployed to achieve those aims
(Nanoforumeula 2007).
13.4.4.1 Conclusions for Mexico
In this section, nanotechnology policy in Mexico has been analyzed to iden-
tify bottlenecks for sustainable nanotechnology development and what role
international cooperation could play. There is a lively debate on nanotech-
nology policy in Mexico, in which federal, regional, and local governments,
and natural and social scientists participate. However, this debate has not
yet been translated in an official government strategy. The government does
not enforce respect for its national sovereignty in international cooperation
in nanotechnology, which limits the chances that foreign investments benefit
the socioeconomic development of the country. Patenting nanoinventions by
research organizations in Mexico is not done on a large scale. This is prob-
lematic because the structures of the global knowledge economy benefit orga-
nizations possessing IPR. Nanotechnology education does not appear to be
a national priority. There is reference to poverty, health, and environmental
sustainability in the discussion about nanotechnology; however, there is no
separate funding budget set aside for achieving these priorities. To conclude,
the lack of a national nanotechnology policy in Mexico is the main bottle-
neck hampering sustainable nanotechnology development in the country.
13.5 Conclusions
To conclude, the theory of justice and its practical application in the form
of the capabilities approach makes it possible to develop a framework for
assessing which factors influence the chances that national policies and
international cooperation in nanotechnology will contribute to sustainable
nanotechnology development. It is not only suitable for making the dynam-
ics of the activities of actors inside nanotechnology research and policy mak-
ing visible, but also to identify relevant external bottlenecks that should be
