Policy and innovation: Nanoenergy technology in the USA and China

The USA is a leading country while China is an up-and-coming one in nanotechnology. We carried out a cross-country comparative study on policy and innovation of the two countries in subset nanoenergy field. They both created favorable policy environments for nanotechnology involving applications of nanotechnology in the energy sector. However, Chinese policy deployments for nanotechnology lack coordinated arrangements and effective assessment mechanisms. China performs better than the USA in technological quantity, but weaker in technological influence. The USA expresses an industry-oriented model in nanoenergy technological research and development, but China exhibits a university-and-institute-oriented model. Interorganizational collaboration relationships in the two countries are both still very rare and have huge development space. They both have a long way to go in converting their technological achievements into commercial products, especially China. Finally, we provide the policy implications of this study. In particular, the Chinese government should strengthen its efforts in policies by changing the national S&T evaluation system to set up the basic idea that quality is better than quantity in order to raise the original innovation motivations of innovators. - Highlights: •We compare development status of nanoenergy technologies between China and the USA. •We mainly focus on their policies, innovation performance and pattern in nanoenergy. •Differences are observed in nanoenergy technologies developed in these two countries. •We propose their endeavor directions in nanoenergy based on this study.