Unlike the metal itself, the gold markets are always changingand you haveto haveyoureyeswideopento keepup. Thisisespecially true in the field of gold nanotechnology, wherescientists around the world are advancing our understandingof this special form of gold year in, year out.This special issue of Gold Bulletin offers a series of 16research articles describing cutting edge advances in the fieldof gold nanotechnology. The common thread of this work isthe GDR Or-nano, a research network set up in France in2006 with the support of CNRS (Centre National de laRecherche Scientifique, the French fundamental researchorganization). Or-nano (which stands for gold-nano) hasorganized and run a wide variety of meetings and eventsover the last 8 years, involving approximately 450 re-searchers along the way.The successes of Or-nano community are numerous andincludeavarietyofnewresearchcollaborations,thelaunchofnew projects, many invited lectures, and the training of thenext generation of PhD students and postdocs.In early 2013, a call to the community was issued forsubmissions to Gold Bulletin. After the usual review process,16 articles have been accepted, bringing together 86 authorsand 17 different research institutions into this special issue.This isa fairly accurate snapshot of the work achievedbyOr-