1 NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTION: A ROADMAP FOR DEVELOPMENT

Compared with other major industrial sectors, construction industry has lagged behind in awareness of the potential for exploitation of nanotechnology. Both the awareness and actual exploitation in construction are now increasing, however, progress is uneven, especially in the current early stages of its practical exploitation. A Roadmap then becomes a useful tool, a template, for predictions of trends and developments connecting nanotechnology and construction. The Roadmap for Nanotechnology in Construction (RoNaC) outlined in this paper is aimed at facilitating identifications of desirable aims/destinations for construction research and technical development (RTD) over a short-medium timescale (up to 25-years). The RoNaC was developed as an aid for forecasting research and investment directions. It provides guidance to construction industry, investors and national/international bodies supporting research and development about the diverse pathways towards current nanotechnology linked expectations, aims and targets in this very large and economically very significant domain. The complexity of the construction domain is such that a single overall chart would be far too general in