wooferwax, while the number of university is in the thousands I once counted only about 150 that got nanotechnology related NSF grants. Funding is necessary for new technology experiments. I mentioned yesterday that sigma Millipore seems to be doing university - industry alliances(Baylor)- that's because the university needs the money to do the project. it is a huge gamble that anything comes of it.

Also, how much manpower do you want to throw at the retail enterprise? What's your budget and breakeven? to me this only works as marketing for big deals and only if the work for it is done in the workers spare time or for practice or training also. I applaud it for that purpose.