 The Excellence Center for Novel Materials ( Spanish : Centro de Excelencia en Nuevos Materiales , CENM ) is part of a high @-@ priority national effort , supported primarily by COLCIENCIAS and implemented by 19 recognized multidisciplinary research groups in 10 universities across the nation . Additionally , it gets international support from four world @-@ renowned institutions : The Nanotechnology center from Northwestern University , the Thin Film and Nanoscience Group from the University of California at San Diego , the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan , and the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research on Materials from the University of Chile . Research work at CENM is organized around 4 Interdisciplinary Research Themes ( IRT ) , which are : Advanced Coatings , Composite Materials , Nano @-@ magnetism , and Solid State Devices , Sensors , and Mesoscopic Systems . The center acquired in 2008 an Atomic force microscope , the first in South America , with a cost of $ 620 million COP . 
