Research and development in nanotechnology has seen an astonishing progress during the past decade, and has now provided clearer indication of its potential. There is great potential to incorporate nanotechnology-enabled products and services into almost all industrial sectors and medical fields by 2020. Resulting benefits will include increased productivity, more sustainable development, and new jobs. To advance our scientific knowledge, and to bring competitive advantage to the EU research and development in nanotechnology, PI proposes to investigate silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminum nitride (AlN) wide-bandgap semiconductor nanostructures and develop new applications of these nanostructures for energy generation, optoelectronics, and sensing. The proposed project is aimed not only to address the fundamental technical and scientific issues of 1D nanostructures, but also develop original products utilizing these materials. 1D-AlN nanostructures are extremely important for many applications in several fields including power transistors, optoelectronics, heat sinks, resonators, sensors, and nanogenerators. Similarly, due to its inherent superior properties, SiC is an excellent material for applications in many areas including microelectronics (high temperature, high power, and high frequency), thermoelectrics, optoelectronics, and biomedical.The specific research objectives are: 1) Full spectrum characterization of AlN nanostructures; 2) Development of AlN nanostructure based electricity generators (nanogenerators); 3) Full spectrum characterization of SiC nanowires; 4) Fabrication of SiC-nanowire devices for studying electrical, photoconductivity, and thermoelectric properties of the SiC nanowires.The proposed project will significantly contribute to Europe’s competitiveness in nanotechnology, since the project greatly overlaps with the EU-Horizon -2020’s specific objective and broad lines of activities for nanotechnology research, development, and education.