The Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven National Laboratory will provide scientists with state-of-the-art capabilities to tailor materials at the atomic level, with the aim of understanding how to improve materials’ chemical or physical functioning. The “functional nanomaterials” resulting from this understanding are expected to have broad applications as the basis of future technology, such as faster computers, improved solar energy conversion, and more efficient catalysis of chemical reactions. The science at the CFN is organized around three scientific themes: nanocatalysis, biological and soft nanomaterials, and electronic nanomaterials. The experimental capabilities at the CFN are arranged into seven laboratory facilities: materials synthesis, nanopatterning, proximal probes, theory and computation, electron microscopy, ultrafast lasers, and an endstation at the NSLS. Access to the CFN is through a simple, peer-reviewed proposal process with a call for proposals that takes place three times per year.