The recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has radically transformed our way of life redefining scientific processes and science governance in unforeseen ways and has shown how easy it is for a catastrophic infectious event to occur in our globalised world. This emergency raises broad, fundamental questions on emerging infectious diseases, caused by virus as well as antibiotic resistant bacteria, which scientific research is being asked to address. At NANO several research activities are focused on this challenging topic by means of a multidisciplinary approach.