The New York Center for National Competitiveness in Nanoscale Characterization (NC³), headquartered at CNSE, is a world-class center created to formulate and deploy nanotechnology metrology innovations that will enable commercialization within small, medium, and large U.S. companies and further strengthen technological and business competitiveness in the United States.

Launched with federal funding obtained by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, the mission of NC³ is to leverage pertinent intellectual assets and physical resources to enable "seeing" and measuring at the nanoscale - one of the leading challenges facing the nanotechnology industry - in order to enable development of smaller and faster computer chips that offer higher performance and reduced power consumption for use in a wide range of industries, from health care, energy and telecommunications to military, aerospace and transportation.  

The creation of NC³ was also the impetus for a landmark agreement that brings federal research expertise and resources to CNSE's Albany NanoTech Complex. Through a first-ever partnership between CNSE, through NC³, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), through its Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), CNSE and NIST are working collaboratively to share research, equipment, staff and other key resources to enable development of innovative nanoscale metrology and imaging solutions, as well as formulation and deployment of pioneering techniques for the measurement of materials at the nanoscale.  

That collaboration, in turn, has already triggered new investments totaling more than $15 million from the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI), New York State and six of the world's leading nanoelectronics corporations.