Besides being the element responsible for life on earth, Carbon is becoming a fundamental material in modern science and technology. Pure carbon systems can be found in many different structures (or allotropic forms) with a huge variety of structural and electronic properties that have to be understood theoretically and experimentally in order to be useful for technological applications. Graphene, the two dimensional allotrope, is the "mother" of fullerenes (wrapped graphene), carbon nanotubes (rolled graphene), graphite (stacked graphene), and diamond (distorted graphene), and is the basis for the understanding of all these allotropic forms. The Graphene Centre at NUS was created for the theoretical and experimental study of graphene-based materials with potential impact in science and technology. Carbon-based materials have properties that are quite different from those found in ordinary metals and semiconductors, and hence require special study. The new NGS programme in Carbon Science and Technology will focus on the detailed theoretical and experimental study of this material and its applications in modern devices.