The objective of the flagship Advanced Nanoprobing is to advance and to develop truly novel scanning probe tools that will allow investigating and manipulating materials properties on a nanometer scale, which is of vital importance for the further development of Nano Science and Nano Technology.

In order to realize the full potential of molecular nanotechnology it is necessary to develop the ability to control nanosystems from the macroscopic world in such a way that they will perform a predetermined task at the desired time.

In bottom-up nano-electronics, electrical components such as transistors, memory elements, light-emitting diodes, lasers, and sensors are fabricated by chemical synthesis and then assembled into circuits.

The aim of this flagship program is to deliver both the molecular components as well as the fundamental insight into the molecular properties essential for the development of the nanotechnology-toolbox.

For the next generation of nanoelectronic devices, new materials are needed. This holds for organic semiconductors and artificial materials with great potential in novel devices, materials that push the operating temperature of nanoelectronics devices to room temperature, new approaches in nanowires and crystals.

This strongly interdisciplinary consortium targets the development of strategies for the preparation of nanostructures in the 5-100 nm resolution range that is currently inaccessible with existing lithographic and micromachining technologies.

Scaling down the successful concept of microfluidics/Lab-on-a-Chip a few orders of magnitude towards the nanometer domain results in structural sizes close to the dimensions of large molecules.

NanoInstrumentation will focus on two steps of device fabrication that require high resolution: "definition" or "lithography" and "inspection and repair".

The NanoPhotonics Flagship addresses photonic materials and devices based on nanotechnology. Novel nanotechnological methods allow a further miniaturization of optical devices.

The central goal of the flagship NanoSpintronics is the development of novel concepts for manipulation, transport and storage of "spins" (the tiny magnetic movements by electrons), and their implementation in nanoscale electronic devices and systems.

The objective of this flagship is the development of electronic circuits based on nanodevices, to be used as building blocks for quantum computers. Its focus is on semiconducting and superconducting nanosystems, where the electron spin and clockwise/anti-clockwise circulating persistent currents are used as fundamental logic units.