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Introduction

Nanometric dimensions are the common point shared by the state-of-the-art Research and Innovation fields such as Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Information Technology – a key contributor – feeds from their development and knowledge and rapidly advances driven partially by the new challenges that they continuously provoke.

The fact that physical, chemical and biological concepts are expressed and shared in this common space – so called the nano-scale – implies that they also share the same basic principles, they all respect the same laws and therefore we should be able to study them from the same perspective and follow similar approaches. In this new wave, topics linked to any of these disciplines can potentially be treated and managed to build and constitute a single system.

However, the capacity to transform this potential into a fully established and understood practice lies in the shift from the present unidirectional education and academic specialization to the multidisciplinary synergy that Converging Technologies represents. Converging Technologies NBIC Micro-Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno technologies, or 'Converging Technologies for the European Knowledge Society' (CTEKs in european terminology), must be considered as an actual new technology emerging from many others and especially from the above mentioned NBIC.

It is the main objective of this Forum to contribute towards this paradigm shift, outlining, debating and defining some imaginative but realistic ways to move forward, to identify some hot-topics from the Health and Society fields, and to draft some initial pilot projects.

It is expected that from the scientific and technical approaches presented, and from the outcomes of the projects resulting from it, this Forum will contribute to enabling Converging Technologies' full potential and to embrace this global foresight in Science, Technology and Economic development.

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