The present invention is directed to thin film transistors using nanowires (or other nanostructures such as nanoribbons, nanotubes and the like) incorporated in and/or disposed proximal to conductive polymer layer(s), and production scalable methods to produce such transistors. In particular, a composite material comprising a conductive polymeric material such as polyaniline (PANI) or polypyrrole (PPY) and one or more nanowires incorporated therein is disclosed. Several nanowire-TFT fabrication methods are also provided which in one exemplary embodiment includes providing a device substrate; depositing a first conductive polymer material layer on the device substrate; defining one or more gate contact regions in the conductive polymer layer; depositing a plurality of nanowires over the conductive polymer layer at a sufficient density of nanowires to achieve an operational current level; depositing a second conductive polymer material layer on the plurality of nanowires; and forming source and drain contact regions in the second conductive polymer material layer to thereby provide electrical connectivity to the plurality of nanowires, whereby the nanowires form a channel having a length between respective ones of the source and drain regions.