Nanomedicine, specifi cally the use of nanotechnologies for medical applications, has been around for the last 30 years, although it was not designed as such in the very beginning. It is not a futuristic vision anymore, and products are already entering the market for the benefi t of the patients and society: today, 44 nano-delivery products have received market approval in the USA (including 18 pharmaceutical products) as well as 15 products in the fi elds of imaging and diagnostics. Many more are currently under clinical trials (more than 70 worldwide) and clinical uptake of key products can already be witnessed in the fi eld of in vivo imaging for surgical procedures for example. As more products and case studies are emerging, a global landscape is gradually appearing, highlighting crucial issues, gaps and needs that need to be addressed urgently for nanomedicine to keep its pace of development. Outstanding research is currently being performed throughout Europe, but with limited market outputs . For the last few years, the concept of “ translational nanomedicine ” has been at the core of many concerns and issues explaining this lack of commercial uptake have been identifi ed. Among these issues, the lack of industrial awareness and the poor industrial feasibility of European research are commonly cited reasons. This is especially relevant in the fi eld of therapeutics where uptake by large pharmaceutical industries is needed to cover the costs of clinical trials. For other fi elds such as in-vitro diagnostics, companies could manage on their own but there are very few start-ups on the market due to a highly uncertain, complex and changing regulatory landscape, with diffi culties to earn suffi cient funds and to fi nd the proper guiding support for proof of concept , a crucial step that propels the company if managed effi ciently. At the end of 2013, recommendations will be made by the European Commission to structure the orientation and priorities of the next European framework program called Horizon 2020 , which will fund research projects at the European level from 2014 until 2020. It has already been established that Excellence Science, Industrial leadership and Societal Challenges will be the three pillars of the next European framework program. To support them, six Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) have been identifi ed with strategic importance: nanotechnologies, advanced materials, microand nano-electronics, photonics, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. In this context, nanomedicine has more than one role to play: as a highly interdisciplinary fi eld, this technology has the potential and necessity to combine most of the KETs to deliver advanced products and to keep proving to be an essential enabling instrument for personalized, targeted and regenerative medicine . Beyond that, nanomedicine will offer tremendous tools to cope with societal health challenges such as an aging population and disparate access to treatments: by enabling improved and cost-effective health-care, it will embody one crucial factor for making medicines and treatments more available and affordable. Bearing in mind that according to BCC Research (Market report, 2012) the global nanomedicine market is expected to grow from $ 63.8 billion in 2010 to $ 130.9 billion by 2016 , it can be ensured that economic and industrial return on investment will be considerable, if research is carefully framed and pushed forward. Recently, an unprecedented effort of consolidating the area of Nanomedicine research has been undertaken in order to deliver valuable inputs for and to promote nanomedicine in the Horizon 2020 framework program, giving rise to NanoMed 2020 , a project funded with a contribution by the European Commission under the Work Program FP7-HEALTH-2012. This 18 months European Coordinated Action started in September 2012 and will end in February 2014 with key deliverables and recommendations for the European Commission for funding nanomedicine related research activities. Making Europe a center for profi table nanomedicine research, development and translation is the goal of this project. The objectives are ambitious yet necessary and will need the joined forces of all actors and involved partners; namely the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine ETPN (operated by VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH), Germany, the European Foundation for Clinical Nanomedicine (CLINAM Foundation), Switzerland, the National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain, Bioanalytik-muenster e.V (BioMS), Germany, Nanobiotix SA, France, the Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS (FDG), Italy, and SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Norway. In the process of drafting concepts for more effi cient funding programs and translation strategies, NanoMed 2020 plans to lead various and complementary workshops, ranging from the federation of the nanomedicine community and the introduction of novel communication tools to the implemen-