In autumn 2010 a group of scientist from the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (IPTC) and the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP) founded the Center for Light Harvesting and Nanophotonics (hν–Center) with the aim to pool their research activities in the areas of nano-photonics, plasmonics, and fundamentals of photovoltaics. The researchers involved from the IAP are Prof. Schreiber, Prof. Kern and Prof. Fleischer. Participating scientist from the IPTC are Prof. Chassé, Prof. Meixner, PD Dr. Zhang, Prof. Fink and Prof. Brecht (IPTC & Reutlingen University). The groups have successfully collaborated for many years and have published a number of joint journal papers on the above topics. The research group "Molecules on micro- and nanostructured surfaces: Interaction, detection, function" funded from 2006 to 2009 in the context of the research focus program Baden-Württemberg served as a precursor for the hν Center. Funding by Baden-Württemberg Foundation for the joint projects "Nanostructured organic photovoltaic cells" (2011 - 2014) and "Hybrid GRIN resonators and plasmonically structured GRIN lenses as compact sensors for the spectro-microscopy of individual particles" (2012 - 2015) is gratefully acknowledged. Additional bi- or multilateral project funding has been granted by German Academic Exchange Service DAAD and the German Research Foundation DFG. Since the foundation of the Core Facility LISA+ (Center for Light-Matter-Interaction, Sensors and Analytics) 2011, the hν Center was incorporated in LISA⁺.