It is essential to be aware of young people's knowledge, interests and attitudes towards nanotechnologies in order to effectively communicate NT to them and to create tools that are useful in their education while tackling the topics that are most interesting for them.

For this reason, between June and November 2009, NANOYOU conducted a survey on the topic of NT amongst youngsters aged 11-26 from Europe and Israel. The survey contained focus group discussions as well as an online questionnaire. To get a whole picture, experts from different fields -such as teachers and science communication experts- were interviewed, and representatives from several European countries also contributed by filling national context questionnaires.