Nanoscience and Nanotechnology became the trend of the 21st century, influencing many areas such as electronics, biology, medicine, aerospace, agriculture, and the engineering of novel materials. Recently a new aspect of nanoscience and nanotechnology appeared and has been rising rapidly ever since: functional nanostructures, intelligent nanostructures for targeted applications. In the present Thematic Series a bright spectrum of such targeted functional nanostructures is presented demonstrating the unique possibilities of engineering at the nanometer scale. The self-organization of nanoparticles, nanowires or nanotubes and the introduction of those structures into various materials made it possible to solve long-standing problems.