"The study of the transport properties of nanowires grown by bottom-up approaches is a fundamental step toward their technological integration into a real device. Their integration into complex electronic devices by simple and controllable methodologies is the key issue to achieving the evolutionary progress that should permit to improve computers and communication systems such that they offer superior performances and enhanced miniaturization associated with increased computational speed, tera-bit storage capacity, ultra-low energy consumption, and reduced costs per function. The final goal of the TaPIR project is to explore new areas of this research field creating new scientific possibilities beyond the boundaries of conventional technologies and applications.The TaPIR project focuses on a threefold objective: i) developing a novel nano-engineering technique -the so called ion-beam shaping technique- to transform embedded metallic spherical nanoparticles into prolate nanorods and nanowires, with an aspect ratio that can be tuned by the ion type, energy and ion beam fluence, ii) to contact them in a vertical geometry and iii) to study their transport properties both from the spin-dependent and from the mesoscopic point of view.The originality of the work proposed resides in elaborating a unique combination of ion-irradiation, colloidal chemistry and nanostructuration techniques to obtain and to study contacted ion-shaped NPs in a vertical configuration. In this respect, our approach is certainly unique and must be considered as an innovating and hitherto unexplored pathway to produce configurations of contacted NPs that are not accessible by merely standard techniques. Furthermore, the project represents an exceptional opportunity to yield new insights within the field of the transport properties of materials at the nanoscale."