The primary goal of ESQUIRE (Experiment with Scintillating Quantum dots for Ionizing Radiation Events) is the development of a new family of scintillation detectors based on scintillating nanocrystals coupled to high-quantumefficiency solid-state detectors. These detectors will be designed for the search of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ), therefore an excellent energy resolution in the region of interest for the study of 0νββ (~ 2% around 3 MeV) is mandatory. One of the main advantages in this approach is the easy mass scalability, which makes ESQUIRE a competitive option for next-generation experiments. During the discussion the project goal will be presented, alongside the first optical characterization of QD samples.