5Transition-metal (TM) cations and clusters have been widely used to functionalize polyoxometalates (POMs) of the tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium, as their acidic nature, which made them compatible with addendum TM cations. Together with the well understanding of their solution behavior, a great achievement of TM-based POMs has been made, which exhibited potential applications in many fields. Comparably, fewer polyoxoniobates (PONs) were obtained as the poor understanding of their solution 10 behavior, and they could only exist in the strong alkaline aqueous solution, where most of the TM cations precipitated as the formation of hydroxide or oxide. Recently, the TM cations were introduced into the PONs by protection of the chelate organic ligands or via selection of the alkaline-soluble TM cations. Further, lacunary POMs, composed of early TM cations, were used as the polydentate ligands to isolate the PONs, and they make the PON clusters stably exist in the acidic solution. The acidic nature of the 15 tungstoniobate (W-Nb) clusters allowed acid-soluble TM cations to directly functionalize the Nb-W clusters. This highlight focuses on discussing the roles of the TM centers in constructing the PON-based materials, including the TM-cluster-containing PONs, TM-organic group-decorating PONs and the niobate clusters isolated by lacunary POMs. The systemically compilation of TM-PON work will reveal a promising direction for further functionalization of the PONs, and it will be more rich and diverse of the 20 PON chemistry.