The center consists of about 170 people, including physicists, chemists, engineers and biologists.The activity will be complemented by the proximity X-ray lithography Beam line (LILIT) at the Synchrotron facility of Trieste.The target of the center is the exploration and development of new concepts and new nano-systems exploiting either the bottom-up (self assembling and molecular engineering for hybrid organic/inorganic systems and mesoscopic systems) and the top-down approaches (ultimate resolution nanotechnologies applied to semiconductor nanostructures), in the same mainframe.

To this aim a coordinated effort along four main actions is done:

• 1) Improving exploration and seeding research in high risk areas, such as: bio-molecular electronics, local spectroscopies, new materials, ultimate resolution in lithography, new self-assembling phenomena
• 2) Enhancing fabrication and high-tech capability, such as: novel concept devices based on organic-inorganic heterostructures, telecom devices (nanostructure lasers), diffraction optics and advanced processing of soft matter
• 3) Enhancing technology transfer, by involving international companies in the center activity, as primary end-users of the research and for large R&D programs in outsourcing (a large support to the center activity will come for instance from Agilent Technologies through specific R&D programs)
• 4) Enhancing competitiveness and visibility with respect to corresponding nanotechnology facilities in USA and Japan.