The electronic chips of the future might not be made of silicon or even graphene but of a material called molybdenite (MoS2). EU-funded research presented in the journal Nature Nanotechnology demonstrates that molybdenite is a highly effective semi-conductor that could be used to make transistors both smaller and more energy efficient. EU support for the work came from the 5-year FLATRONICS ('Electronic devices based on nanolayers') project, a EUR 1.8 million European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant awarded to Professor Andras Kis of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in 2009. ERC grants are channelled through the Ideas Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).