The New Robotic Telescope (NRT) is an international initiative to build a 4-metre robotic telescope. With a primary mirror consisting of 18 segmented hexagonal mirrors and a control system that will allow fully autonomous operation, NRT will be the world's largest robotic telescope. This, together with a response time of less than 30 seconds, a suite of simultaneously mounted instruments covering the usual modes of photometry and spectroscopy in the optical and near-infrared ranges, and the exceptional conditions at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory (La Palma, Spain) will make NRT a key astronomical facility in the field of time-domain astronomy. The project is in the final stages of design. In this contribution we present an overview of the project and the plans for its construction and operation.