The scientific and economic relevance of micro- and nanotechnology will continue to progress at an accelerated pace in the near and foreseeable future. In order to maintain competitiveness on a national and international scale several institutes of the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences and of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at RWTH Aachen University established the "Central Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology" (CMNT). The research infrastructure CMNT operates a central clean room facility with 500 m² of clean room space (ISO class 5), that will be extended (until spring of 2021) by additional 625 m² of clean room space. CMNT is organized as a shared user facility and is the central technology platform for the fabrciation of micro- and nanostructures at RWTH Aachen University. It makes a very broad set of different fabrication tools available for external and internal users. In order to guarantee a safe and efficient operation, CMNT provides a number of different online tools, such as an online reservation system as well as online safety training and video tutorials for the operation of the microfabrication tools. CMNT does only allow a significantly more efficient use of resources, but it also plays a central role in fostering the collaboration between physicists and engineers and in seeding multi-disciplinary research. Internal and external users including industrial partners have access to a first-class research infrastructure as well as to a broad scientific and technological knowledge base.