Coronagraphs have proven to be effective tools for the imaging of the circumstellar environment where planetary processes proceed but almost all of them are PI class instruments and therefore not available to the general population of researchers. The Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) will be a unique facility class instrument optimized for planetary system investigations in the 1-5 micron region. It will be built for the Gemini Telescopes and installed initially in Chile. NICI is a dual beam differential imager with a dedicated adaptive optics system and a low scatter optical system optimized to take advantage of various diffraction reduction strategies. I will review the planetary systems evolution scenario pointing out the applications for which NICI has been designed and then give an overview of the instrument.