In January 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry awarded a $500,000 workforce development award to Texas State Technical College-Waco (TSTC) to fund curriculum development, infrastructure, and internships in nanotechnology. TSTC, CASPER at Baylor University, Del Mar College of Corpus Christi, and Zyvex Corporation of Richardson are working together on this Nanotechnology Workforce Development Initiative.

Several other key colleges, such as Richland Community College and TSTC Harlingen, as well as leading nanotechnology companies such as Intelliepi, Nanotechnologies Inc., and Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc. have joined this effort.

It is anticipated that as this program evolves, more nanotechnology companies will look to the community colleges to recruit highly trained and talented nanotechnicians.