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The 10th edition of the Smart Materials and Surfaces - SMS 2025 Conference

Conference Topics

Smart Materials and Surfaces 2025 Conference themes are as follow:

  • Advances in Functional and Multifunctional Materials
  • Multifunctional and smart surfaces and coatings/ thin films
  • Hybrid materials
  • Shape Memory Materials: State-of-the-art Research and Applications
  • Advances in Multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials and applications
  • Advances in Inorganic Luminescent Materials and Applications
  • Metamaterials and Metadevices
  • Electro-active polymers: current capabilities and challenges
  • Catalytic materials
  • Photocatalytic Materials for Energy and Environmental Applications
  • Energy Harvesting via Smart Materials
  • Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity
  • Stretchable and Flexible Electronic Materials & Devices
  • Bioinspired Materials
  • Biomimetic bioactive biomaterials – the novel materials of implantable devices
  • Stimuli Responsive Materials
  • Intelligent drug delivery and release systems
  • New Materials for sensors and actuators: Sensing the Future with New Materials
  • Progress in Wearable/Wireless and Implantable Body Sensor Networks for Healthcare Applications 
  • Intelligent Materials for Textiles
  • Fire retardant materials and surfaces
  • Smart Materials & Micro/Nanosystems
  • Graphene and Other Emerging 2D-layered Nanomaterials

In addition to the main conference sessions, we will host EU projects workshops and focused sessions on innovative topics:

EU projects Workshop:  Next-Gen Nanocoatings: Accelerating Antimicrobial Innovation with Modeling & AI

-  Smart Coatings and Surfaces: Innovations, Applications, and Future Directions

-  Nanomaterials for Smart Systems: From Fundamentals to Applications

-  Quantum Materials: Unlocking the Future of Electronics and Matter

-  Bioinspired and Biomimetic Materials: Bridging Nature and Innovation

-  Smart Composite Materials and Surfaces: Tailored Functionality for Advanced Applications

 

EU projects Workshop (RELIANCE, NOVA, and NANOBLOC):  Next-Gen Nanocoatings: Accelerating Antimicrobial Innovation with Modeling & AI

Organisers: EU-funded Projects RELIANCE, NOVA, and NANOBLOC

Join us for a full-day workshop at Smart Materials and Surfaces 2025, where we dive into the next generation of antimicrobial nanocoatings. Organized by three leading EU-funded projects, this session will spotlight how modeling, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) principles are reshaping the innovation landscape—from fundamental research to real-world industrial deployment.

Workshop highlights:

  • Project overviews from RELIANCE, NOVA, and NANOBLOC
  • Technical deep-dives into modeling and AI methodologies
  • Integration of SSbD frameworks in nanocoating development
  • Case studies and practical examples from industry applications

RELIANCE: Smart response self-desinfected bio-based nanocoated surfaces for healthier environments

NOVA: Next Generation BiOactiVe NAnocoatings

NANOBLOC: Antiviral, Antibacterial & Antifungal Nanocoating Platform

This is a unique opportunity to explore how digital tools and advanced materials science are coming together to tackle urgent antimicrobial challenges.

Don't miss this insightful session on 30 October 2025 in Rome!

 

Focus session on Smart Coatings and Surfaces: Innovations, Applications, and Future Directions

Smart coatings and surfaces are at the forefront of material innovation, offering adaptive, protective, and multifunctional capabilities that address pressing industrial and societal challenges. This focus session will highlight recent breakthroughs in nanostructured, self-cleaning, self-healing, antimicrobial, anti-corrosive, and energy-efficient coatings, as well as functional surfaces designed for sensing, biomedical, and environmental applications.

Emphasis will be placed on emerging fabrication techniques, scalable processes, and the integration of AI and modeling to accelerate design and performance optimization. The session aims to provide a platform for exploring how next-generation coatings and engineered surfaces can extend material lifespans, enhance sustainability, and unlock new applications across healthcare, aerospace, energy, construction, and beyond.


Keywords: 

  • Smart coatings and surfaces
  • Self-cleaning and self-healing coatings 
  • Antimicrobial and anti-corrosion coatings
  • Nanostructured coatings
  • Functional and protective surfaces
  • Energy-efficient coatings
  • Biomedical surface engineering
  • Advanced fabrication techniques
  • AI-driven materials design
  • Sustainable surface technologies

 

Focus session on Bioinspired & Biomimetic Materials: Bridging Nature and Innovation

Nature has long served as a blueprint for advanced material design, offering solutions that are efficient, adaptive, and sustainable. This session explores the latest progress in bioinspired and biomimetic materials, where researchers draw inspiration from biological systems to develop new materials and devices with tailored functionalities.

Topics include biologically inspired structures, self-healing materials, biomimetic surfaces and coatings, functional nanostructures, and bioactive materials for healthcare and engineering applications. Special focus will be given to materials that replicate natural mechanisms such as adhesion, sensing, energy harvesting, and environmental responsiveness.

By bridging biology, materials science, and engineering, this theme highlights the transformative potential of biomimetic design in creating sustainable, intelligent, and multifunctional materials for future technologies.


Keywords:

  • Bioinspired materials
  • Biomimetic surfaces
  • Self-healing materials
  • Nature-inspired design
  • Bioactive and biocompatible materials
  • Functional nanostructures
  • Smart coatings
  • Sustainable materials
  • Energy harvesting from biological systems
  • Adaptive and responsive materials

 

Focus session on Nanomaterials for Smart Systems: From Fundamentals to Applications

Nanomaterials are the foundation of next-generation smart systems, enabling breakthroughs in electronics, energy, healthcare, and environmental technologies. This focus session will cover advances in the design, synthesis, and characterization of nanomaterials, alongside their integration into multifunctional devices and intelligent systems.

Key topics include nanostructured materials for sensing, energy storage and conversion, nano-enabled electronics, wearable/implantable devices, and responsive systems. Special emphasis will be placed on the transition from fundamental research to real-world applications, highlighting scalable manufacturing, system-level integration, and performance optimization.

By bridging nanoscience and applied engineering, this session will showcase how nanomaterials are shaping the future of smart, adaptive, and sustainable technologies.


Keywords: 

  • Nanomaterials for smart systems
  • Functional nanostructures
  • Nano-enabled sensors and actuators
  • Nanomaterials for energy harvesting and storage
  • Wearable and implantable nanodevices
  • Responsive and adaptive nanomaterials
  • Scalable nanomaterials synthesis
  • System-level integration
  • Next-generation electronics
  • Sustainable nanotechnology

 

Focus session on Quantum Materials: Unlocking the Future of Electronics and Matter

Quantum materials represent a new frontier in science and technology, where exotic electronic, magnetic, and optical properties emerge from quantum phenomena. This focus session will explore advances in topological materials, 2D quantum systems, quantum spintronics, superconductors, and correlated electron systems, emphasizing their potential to transform electronics, sensing, energy, and quantum information technologies.

Discussions will highlight both fundamental discoveries and application-driven research, with a focus on materials design, characterization techniques, and device integration. By bridging theory, experimentation, and engineering, this session aims to demonstrate how quantum materials are shaping the future of next-generation devices and functional matter.


Keywords:

  • Quantum materials
  • Topological insulators
  • 2D quantum systems
  • Superconductivity
  • Quantum spintronics
  • Strongly correlated electron systems
  • Quantum sensing and devices
  • Quantum information materials
  • Emergent quantum phenomena
  • Next-generation electronics

Focus session on Smart Composite Materials and Surfaces: Tailored Functionality for Advanced Applications

Smart composites and engineered surfaces are revolutionizing material science by combining structural strength with adaptive, multifunctional properties. This focus session will highlight recent advances in the design, fabrication, and characterization of smart composite systems, including lightweight, self-healing, energy-harvesting, and stimuli-responsive composites.

Applications span across aerospace, automotive, energy, construction, healthcare, and wearable technologies, with emphasis on tailored functionality, durability, and scalability. The session will also address innovations in nanocomposite surfaces, hybrid structures, and interface engineering, demonstrating how smart composites enable next-generation performance and sustainability in advanced applications.


Keywords:

  • Smart composite materials
  • Multifunctional composites
  • Self-healing composites
  • Stimuli-responsive composites
  • Energy-harvesting composites
  • Hybrid and nanocomposite surfaces
  • Interface engineering
  • Lightweight and durable materials
  • Scalable fabrication methods
  • Advanced applications in aerospace, energy, and healthcare