PORTLAND — Gov. Ted Kulongoski promoted nanotechnology as a key to Oregon’s economic future Monday during a tour of ONAMI’s facilities at Portland State University.

ONAMI — the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute — is a public-private partnership headquartered in Corvallis that seeks to turn research at the state’s three major universities into commercial products. Its scientists focus on new materials and technologies on the atomic and molecular scale, the next frontier of ultraminiaturization.

“Nanotechnology will help us bolster our economy and extend the hope of prosperity to more people,” Kulongoski said. “We will create new jobs for Oregonians — well-paying jobs in clean industries.”

ONAMI, which plans to move its administrative offices from donated space at Hewlett-Packard’s Corvallis campus to a remodeled Graf Hall at Oregon State University in the next few years, is in line for $8 million in funding for defense research in President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal.