Essay: The European Consortium on Nanomaterials, which was founded earlier this year, brings together research groups from academia and industry from ten European countries with the aim of promoting the development of nanostructured materials. The main objectives of the consortium and its working groups are outlined, the common features of nanomaterials are discussed, and the factors that need to be controlled in order to be able to tailor the properties of the materials are sketched. See the following Essay for details of another activity connected with nanomaterials.