The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) is a non-profit foundation, and one of the centres of the CERCA Institution (https://icn2.cat/en/). Its mission is to achieve scientific and technological excellence in the fields of nanotechnology and nanoscience. We do so by incubating new fundamental knowledge and ideas in the broad area of nanoscience, and facilitating the adoption and integration of nanotechnologies into society andindustry. To this end, activity at the ICN2 encompasses:

1. Basic science, including frontier areas
2. Applied Research: in areas of in-house expertise and in conjunction with industry
3. Technology Transfer: intellectual property protection and business development as a result of R&D efforts.

ICN2’s achievements were recognized by the Spanish Government in 2014 with the award of the prestigious Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation (renewed in 2018), so it is part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), a scientific foundation of seven of Catalonia’s research centres with this distinction. 266 people from 30 different countries work at ICN2, 224 of them are researchers. The scientific production of the ICN2 is remarkable; with 187 original papers in 2017, an average impact factor of 7.02 and a total of 8,771 citations. The Magnetic Nanostructures Group (https://icn2.cat/en/magnetic-nanostructures-group), led by Prof. J. Nogués, seeks to improve the functional properties of diverse types of magnetic and magnetophotonic nanostructures. The group combines state-of-the-art lithography and chemical synthesis with structural, morphological, optical and magnetic characterisation to investigate diverse basic aspects of exchange coupled nanostructures and magnetophotonic nanostructures. The goal is the application of these nanostructures for advanced and externally controlled nanotherapies, contrast agents, environmental remediation and sensors.