One billionth of a metre ? that is the scale of nanotechnology. At the level of the atom the boundaries between chemistry, biology and physics become blurred. Other physical laws apply which are responsible for the new, specific properties of the materials and components. Nanotechnology is thus an interdisciplinary science composed of the most varied of specialist fields and is of high significance for certain industries, such as the automotive, medical, pharmaceutical, environment technology, mechanical engineering and electronic sectors.

Nanotechnology is therefore seen as one of the key technologies of the 21st century and its power of innovation has not nearly been fully exploited today. Numerous fields of application and new inventions offer great potential for the improvement of old materials or the development of entirely new products. In order to ensure a highly-developed economy in the future investments in the field of nanotechnology are an absolute must. The Munich Metropolitan Region is one of the trend-setting locations for nanotechnology in Germany, the excellently networked research landscape of which makes a rapidly-growing founders? scene possible.

The extensive basic research in the field of nanotechnology is not only being conducted by the universities and technical colleges of the Munich Metropolitan Region; research institutes such as the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Micro Integration are also very active in this field.