The research life cycle of nanotechnology (NT) and its innovation through grey literature in the form of technical reports in Korea. The changes in the numbers of publications of grey literature and white literature in NT show the process of innovation, as technical reports and journal articles contain research results. Numbers of publications of Korean technical reports on National Discovery for Science Leaders (NDSL) and journal articles on Web of Science Science Citation Index Expended (WoS (SCIE)) are compared year by year. In general, the technical reports were produced at an earlier date than journal articles on the Web of Science. Grey literature contains creative ideas and research output, and reflects the early stage of nanotechnology and thus provides a means of tracing innovation in a specific field of science and technology in Korea.