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GREENSBORO — The educational, business and political leaders who helped celebrate the grand opening of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering on Wednesday night were not shy about sharing their expectations for the school.

“This facility that we’re in today is not only setting a standard for all of the United States, but for the world,” said state Rep. Harold Brubaker of Randolph County. “Think about it. This will be the educational destination for training our future workforce. Right here.”

The school is a $64 million venture between N.C. A&T and UNCG that was built on the Gateway University Research Park’s south campus.

A&T is offering degrees in nanoengineering, and UNCG is offering nanoscience degrees.

Nanoscience is the study of atoms and molecules smaller than 100 nanometers — or about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Or as UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady said joint school Dean Jim Ryan describes it, “very small things that can do good.”

Nanoscience drives innovations in numerous industries, contributing to the computer power of game systems and making drug therapies more effective.

The universities are hoping that work within the school will boost their research profiles.

City, county and state leaders anticipate that research will play an important role in expanding the Piedmont Triad economy by attracting business and industry.

“We had a clear objective in mind, and it was simple: to take advantage of our two research universities and move our community into a more competitive position for high-tech, high-paying jobs,” said Ed Kitchen, board chairman of the Gateway research park. “That’s what this is all about.”

Gov. Bev Perdue suggested the nano school has the same potential for impact here as the Research Triangle Park has had on the Triangle region.

“Today, RTP is a crown jewel,” Perdue said, “and I would believe in the next five or six years, there will be leaders from all over the world who come here to look at Gateway and to look at the innovation and the investment that’s happening here as a result of nanotechnology.”

Faculty and students won’t move into the building until January, but they have been working in temporary spaces on the Gateway campus on East Lee Street.

The school welcomed its inaugural class in August 2010. The school has 44 students and has received more than $4 million in research funding, Ryan said.

The concept for a joint nanoscience school has been more than five years in the making. Former UNCG Provost Ed Uprichard was credited on Wednesday night with bringing forth the idea.

UNC President Tom Ross said it was a collaborative effort that made the idea a reality, particularly on the part of Brady and A&T Chancellor Harold Martin.

“We would not be here celebrating this event were it not for two chancellors who have learned not only to work together, but to become models for what partnerships in higher education can be and frankly, going forward, must be,” Ross said.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com