NOEMA, the Northern Extended Millimeter Array is among the most important ground based astronomy projects in Europe. Together with ALMA it will assure all sky coverage with comparable sensitivities in the millimeter bands and allow the IRAM community to do unique science. With its sensitivity, spatial resolution, frequency coverage and its advanced correlator, NOEMA will in particular allow to do groundbreaking surveys. With its flexible organization and operation, NOEMA will give direct access to discovery space. Last but not least, NOEMA will be extremely efficient in generating synergy with, and optimal use of ALMA. NOEMA will be further enhanced by advanced instrumentation at the IRAM 30m telescope. I will present the main technical specifications of NOEMA and their impact on different fields of astronomy. The time line and possible future extensions will be outlined.