Many of the complex challenges facing 21st century society will require solutions that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The convergence of nanotechnology, information technologies and biotechnology is widely predicted to lie at the heart of the next technological revolution. Nano-info-bio science and technology has the potential to fundamentally transform healthcare, agriculture, energy, security, environmental science and many other areas of pressing concern. MMU is ideally placed to take advantage of and contribute to these developments. We have a strong research presence in each of nanoscience, informatics and biosciences. However, while the relevant groups carry out internationally-renowned work in their own domains, there has been, so far, little cross-fertilization between certain communities.Our programme will stimulate activities at the interfaces of nano-info-bio, initially drawing on members of the Dalton Research Institute (DRI) and the Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health (IRM). The IRM has recently relocated to the main University campus, and the proposed programme will provide an ideal vehicle for creating entirely new institutional partnerships. We therefore seek to build (and strengthen) links between computational scientists/mathematicians/engineers and their counterparts in the natural/life/health sciences. We propose a grass-roots programme of fine-grained project support that will maximise opportunity for involvement and encourage serendipitous contact between different disciplines. By operating within a challenge-driven framework, we will drive the programme to produce tangible outcomes and lay the foundations for long-term sustainability.