Right: Dr John Hegarty, Provost of Trininty College Dublin, An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Dr Martin Naughton, Chairman of the Glen Dimplex Group, at the official opening of The Naughton Institute.

Named after businessman Martin Naughton who donated €5 million towards its establishment, the landmark building on Pearse Street will be home to the cross-discipline Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (Crann).

It is a key element in the strategy to make Ireland a world leader in nanotechnology - which is about understanding things at the atomic level and creating devices at that miniature scale.

Crann hopes to apply its research to two core areas - computer chips and healthcare. Dr Diarmuid O'Brien, executive director of Crann, said nanotechnology would make it possible to create medicines to act on sick cells only rather than large sections of the body.

The institute will also house the world's first science gallery, which opens to the public on 2 February with a nine-day festival, Lightwave, showcasing the use of light in science, technology and art.

"The science gallery comes from the realisation that you have to communicate the value of science and technology to the public, particularly as we are spending public funds," said Prof John Boland, director of Crann.

Crann has attracted more than €70 million in funding for its work, most of which has been provided by the Government through Science Foundation Ireland.

The US National Science Foundation estimates that the market for nanotechnology will be worth $1 trillion (€686 billion) by 2010. The Republic was recently ranked sixth in the world for its research in the area, ahead of Japan, France, Germany and the UK. (Source: Irish Times)