The Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) is an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. DST provides core support to the Centre in the form of a grant-in-aid for conducting basic and applied research in nano and soft matter sciences.

CeNS is located in its new campus, 'Arkavathi' at Shivanapura, Bengaluru North, which hosts ample greenery and has a lovely serene space that would inspire new ideas and probably lead to path-breaking scientific achievements.

The Centre is engaged in materials research at all relevant length scales. Specifically, the current activities are focused on a variety of metal and semiconductor nanostructures, liquid crystals, gels, membranes and hybrid materials. It has close interactions with many Institutions and Industry, in India and abroad.

The Centre was established in 1991 by an eminent liquid crystal scientist, Prof. S. Chandrasekhar, FRS. It was then known as Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, a registered scientific society in Karnataka with the objective to build a centre of excellence in line with the international trend those days on liquid crystal materials and devices. In 1995, it became an autonomous institute under the Department of Electronics (DOE), Government of India and in 2003, was brought under DST. Subsequently in the year 2010, the name was changed to Centre for Soft Matter Research. Recently in 2014, the Centre has further widened the scope of research activities to embrace nanoscience and technology and is now known as Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS). It is being mentored by Nano-Mission of the Government of India.