diff --git a/examples/nimble_scanner/Makefile b/examples/nimble_scanner/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..346eba9985
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/nimble_scanner/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# name of your application
+APPLICATION = nimble_scanner
+
+# If no BOARD is found in the environment, use this default:
+BOARD ?= nrf52dk
+
+# So far, NimBLE only works on nRF52 based platforms
+BOARD_WHITELIST := nrf52dk nrf52840dk
+
+# This has to be the absolute path to the RIOT base directory:
+RIOTBASE ?= $(CURDIR)/../..
+
+# We use the xtimer and the shell in this example
+USEMODULE += xtimer
+USEMODULE += shell
+
+# configure and use Nimble
+USEPKG += nimble
+USEMODULE += nimble_scanner
+USEMODULE += nimble_scanlist
+
+# Comment this out to disable code in RIOT that does safety checking
+# which is not needed in a production environment but helps in the
+# development process:
+DEVELHELP ?= 1
+
+# Change this to 0 show compiler invocation lines by default:
+QUIET ?= 1
+
+include $(RIOTBASE)/Makefile.include
diff --git a/examples/nimble_scanner/README.md b/examples/nimble_scanner/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..91044e3ce5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/nimble_scanner/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# About
+This application demonstrates the usage of the `NimBLE` BLE stack as a scanner.
+It makes use of the RIOT specific `nimble_scanner` adaption module, abstracting
+`NimBLE`s APIs for easier access.
+
+# Usage
+This example provides a `scan` shell command. Issue `scan help` for more
+information on its usage.
+
+Example output:
+```
+> 2019-03-26 14:59:33,158 - INFO #  main(): This is RIOT! (Version: X)
+2019-03-26 14:59:33,161 - INFO # NimBLE Scanner Example Application
+2019-03-26 14:59:33,164 - INFO # Type `scan help` for more information
+> scan help
+2019-03-26 15:00:29,214 - INFO #  scan help
+2019-03-26 15:00:29,216 - INFO # usage: scan [timeout in ms]
+> scan 50
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,289 - INFO #  scan 50
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,343 - INFO # Scanning for 50ms now ... dome
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,343 - INFO #
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,344 - INFO # Results:
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,351 - INFO # [ 0] 3c:8a:28:86:40:90 (RANDOM)  "undefined", adv_msg_cnt: 1, adv_int: 0us, last_rssi: -59
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,359 - INFO # [ 1] 5c:8a:fd:28:9f:c5 (RANDOM)  "undefined", adv_msg_cnt: 1, adv_int: 0us, last_rssi: -87
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,367 - INFO # [ 2] 22:e6:6e:3a:a8:74 (RANDOM)  "undefined", adv_msg_cnt: 1, adv_int: 0us, last_rssi: -84
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,375 - INFO # [ 3] 15:03:93:bb:8b:98 (RANDOM)  "undefined", adv_msg_cnt: 1, adv_int: 0us, last_rssi: -85
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,383 - INFO # [ 4] 61:3a:2e:73:9d:74 (RANDOM)  "undefined", adv_msg_cnt: 1, adv_int: 0us, last_rssi: -63
+2019-03-26 14:59:41,384 - INFO #
+```
diff --git a/examples/nimble_scanner/main.c b/examples/nimble_scanner/main.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0cc959f81c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/nimble_scanner/main.c
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2019 Freie Universität Berlin
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
+ * General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
+ * directory for more details.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @ingroup     examples
+ * @{
+ *
+ * @file
+ * @brief       Example for using NimBLE as a BLE scanner
+ *
+ * @author      Hauke Petersen <hauke.petersen@fu-berlin.de>
+ *
+ * @}
+ */
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+#include "xtimer.h"
+#include "shell.h"
+#include "shell_commands.h"
+
+#include "nimble_scanner.h"
+#include "nimble_scanlist.h"
+
+/* default scan duration (1s) */
+#define DEFAULT_DURATION        (1000000U)
+
+int _cmd_scan(int argc, char **argv)
+{
+    uint32_t timeout = DEFAULT_DURATION;
+
+    if ((argc == 2) && (memcmp(argv[1], "help", 4) == 0)) {
+        printf("usage: %s [timeout in ms]\n", argv[0]);
+        return 0;
+    }
+    if (argc >= 2) {
+        timeout = (uint32_t)(atoi(argv[1]) * 1000);
+    }
+
+    nimble_scanlist_clear();
+    printf("Scanning for %ums now ...", (unsigned)(timeout / 1000));
+    nimble_scanner_start();
+    xtimer_usleep(timeout);
+    nimble_scanner_stop();
+    puts(" done\n\nResults:");
+    nimble_scanlist_print();
+    puts("");
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
+static const shell_command_t _commands[] = {
+    { "scan", "trigger a BLE scann", _cmd_scan },
+    { NULL, NULL, NULL }
+};
+
+int main(void)
+{
+    puts("NimBLE Scanner Example Application");
+    puts("Type `scan help` for more information");
+
+    /* in this example, we want Nimble to scan 'full time', so we set the
+     * window equal the interval */
+    struct ble_gap_disc_params scan_params = {
+        .itvl = BLE_GAP_LIM_DISC_SCAN_INT,
+        .window = BLE_GAP_LIM_DISC_SCAN_WINDOW,
+        .filter_policy = 0,                         /* don't use */
+        .limited = 0,                               /* no limited discovery */
+        .passive = 0,                               /* no passive scanning */
+        . filter_duplicates = 0,                    /* no duplicate filtering */
+    };
+
+    /* initialize the nimble scanner */
+    nimble_scanlist_init();
+    nimble_scanner_init(&scan_params, nimble_scanlist_update);
+
+    /* start shell */
+    char line_buf[SHELL_DEFAULT_BUFSIZE];
+    shell_run(_commands, line_buf, SHELL_DEFAULT_BUFSIZE);
+
+    return 0;
+}