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Since around 50 years ago, the academic world is developing knowledge and technology to understand and to control matter at the nanoscale in order to exploit the peculiar mechanical, electrical, optical and magnetic properties emerging when a discrete number of atoms is assembled in structures which must be described according to the weird rules of quantum mechanics. This huge know how, commonly named Nanotechnology, was nucleated according to deployment strategies mainly defined and funded worldwide by governmental institutions in order to create the base for their further industrial exploitation and to provide an expectedly large socioeconomic impact. In the following, we will give a brief overview of the main applications of nanomaterials and an estimate of their value, based on the forecasts provided by some market research companies. In particular, we will briefly disclose the application of nanomaterials in the fields of Electronics & ICT, Energy and Environment, and, in particular, in the highly rewarding field of Nanomedicine. Further, we will highlight some key aspects of the deployment policies undertaken around the world which still are a key prerequisite for a full exploitation of the potential of Nanotechnology.

Context. The central molecular zone (CMZ) is a similar to 200 pc region around the Galactic centre. The study of star formation in the central part of the Milky Way is of great interest as it provides a template for the closest galactic nuclei. Aims. We present a spectroscopic follow-up of photometrically selected young stellar object (YSO) candidates in the CMZ of the Galactic centre. Our goal is to quantify the contamination of this YSO sample by reddened giant stars with circumstellar envelopes and to determine the star formation rate (SFR) in the CMZ. Methods. We obtained KMOS low-resolution near-infrared spectra (R similar to 4000) between 2.0 and 2.5 mu m of sources, many of which have been previously identified by mid-infrared photometric criteria as massive YSOs in the Galactic centre. Our final sample consists of 91 stars with good signal-to-noise ratio. We separated YSOs from cool late-type stars based on spectral features of CO and Br gamma at 2.3 mu m and 2.16 mu m, respectively. We made use of spectral energy distribution (SED) model fits to the observed photometric data points from 1.25 to 24 mu m to estimate approximate masses for the YSOs. Results. Using the spectroscopically identified YSOs in our sample, we confirm that existing colour-colour diagrams and colour-magnitude diagrams are unable to efficiently separate YSOs and cool late-type stars. In addition, we define a new colour-colour criterion that separates YSOs from cool late-type stars in the H - K-S vs. H-[8.0] diagram. We use this new criterion to identify YSO candidates in the vertical bar l vertical bar < 1.5, vertical bar b vertical bar < 0.5 region and use model SED fits to estimate their approximate masses. By assuming an appropriate initial mass function (IMF) and extrapolating the stellar IMF down to lower masses, we determine a SFR of similar to 0.046 +/- 0.026 M-circle dot yr (1) assuming an average age of 0.75 +/- 0.25 Myr for the YSOs. This value is lower than estimates found using the YSO counting method in the literature. Conclusions. Our SFR estimate in the CMZ agrees with the previous estimates from various methods and reaffirms that star formation in the CMZ is proceeding at a lower rate than predicted by various star forming models.© ESO, 2018. ; G.N. and M.S. acknowledges the Programme National de Cosmologie et Galaxies (PNCG) of CNRS/INSU, France, for financial support. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement No. [614922]. ; Peer reviewed