A University of Colorado Boulder partnership to study nanoscale imaging science and technology has received a five-year renewal and $22 million in funding from the National Science Foundation.

STROBE, or the Science and Technology Center on Real-Time Functioning Imaging, is a collaboration involving scientists from CU Boulder, Fort Lewis College, the University of California Los Angeles, University of California Berkeley, University of California Irvine and Florida International University.

The center is "pushing electron, X-ray and nano-optical imaging to their limits by integrating state-of-the-art microscopes with advanced algorithms and big data," according to a news release about the renewal.

Different types of imaging explored at STROBE helps answer questions about designing materials at extremely small scales. The center aims to address challenges such as designing materials at nanoscale to enable more efficient devices and understanding how atoms rearrange themselves at certain stages.