19 th International Conference on Production Research Bibliometric and Patent Analysis of Nanotechnology A case study from the United Kingdom Qazi Moinuddin Abro 1 , Prof. Chris O’Brien 2 , Prof. Pir Roshan Shah Rashdi 3 1: Nottingham University Business School, UK, E-mail: lixmq@ nottingham.ac.uk 2: Nottingham University Business School, UK, E-mail: Chris.OBrien@nottingham.ac.uk 3: Mehran University Institute of Science and Technology Development, Pakistan, E-mail: pirrashdi@yahoo.com Abstract This paper examines the linkage between university published research (bibliometric) in the UK and the patents granted to UK based assignees and/or inventors in the emergence of new technology, nanotechnology. Three unique data-sets based on patents, co-publications, and firm data pertaining to the unfolding field of nanotechnology in the UK have been developed. Analysis of the data would suggest a weak linkage between nanoscience and technology, notwithstanding that compared with other established fields of science and technology, nanotechnology is a science intensive field and that the multinational companies are working closely with UK academia. An organizational typology has been developed which classifies all the identified UK based companies into 4 distinct categories: academic spinouts, corporate spinouts, NTBF and MNC companies. Classifying these companies according to this typology indicates that the corporate NST community in the UK is predominantly populated by roughly equal proportions of MNC, academic spinouts, and NTBF companies. Analyzing the companies according to their technological specialization identifies that 63% of all NST companies in the UK specialize in two technologies, nanoinstruments and nanomaterials. This paper illustrates the value of the data mining in the modern bibliometric and patent databases. Key Words: Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, Patents, Publications, United Kingdom 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Nano publications Bibliometric quantification is a way to track the emergence of a new technology. Even more so, bibliometric studies can also point to the emergence of accompanying scientific literature. There are about half a dozen bibliometric published studies that deal explicitly with nanotechnology or nanoscience. Braun et al published the first ever study in a bibliometric journal dealing with the nanoscience and technology. In their study, Tibor Braun and his colleagues showed that a new scientific field had emerged on the nano-scale. They were able to establish an exponential growth pattern of publications that addressed nano-scale issues, starting in the early 1990s (Braun et al, 1997). In another study, Meyer and Pearson set out to reproduce and confirm the results of Braun and his colleagues. They confirm the observations of the Braun et al‘s study with respect to the strong increase of publication activity in the 1990s and explored to characterize the field as more interdisciplinary than other area of science (Meyer and Pearson, 1998). Porter and Cunningham carried out a number of different searches in INSPEC 1 and SCI 2 databases. Comparing the nanotechnology content of INSPEC and the SCI, the authors observe divergent developments. Porter and Cunningham see substantial and growing differences among researchers in the ‘nanosciences’. They concluded that, “In SCI nanotechnology coverage is less applied and more oriented towards basic research, so much so that the word ‘nanotechnology’ itself is only infrequently used. In SCI, nanotechnology research relates much more closely to the life sciences and most particularly to bio and organic chemistry. ‘Bottom- up nanotechnology’ items in INSPEC share this orientation (Porter and Cunningham, 1999)”. So far there seem to be few other studies in the US that address nanotechnology in bibliometric terms. Tolles uses bibliometric data to compare the international scientific standing of the U.S. in nanostructure science and technology. Tolles did a search in the SCI using ‘nano*’ as the search 1 The INSPEC database is the world's largest and most comprehensive English-language bibliographic database, in physics, electronics and computing. 2 The Science Citation Index (SCI) provides access to current and retrospective bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references found in 3,700 of the world's leading scholarly science and technical journals covering more than 100 disciplines.