The principal investigators of the NANOSTEM Network have met at Queen Mary University of London for the kick-off meeting. For two days the Scientists discussed the implementation of the project, the financial organisation and the recruitment. On Monday afternoon there was an interesting workshop on PhD Supervision, led by Prof Paul Allen, which provided a very stimulating discussion. This was followed by a training session led by Prof Klaus Liedle from the University of Innsbruck on Intellectual Property, Trademark, Copyright and on the mysteries of the Consortium Agreement. On Tuesday there was a valuable presentation by Vicky Byers (QMUL, JMRO) on the financial aspects of the Network, followed by an important presentation by Lino Ferreira on Ethics.