Introduction

Materials are key components for the products manufactured by almost all industrial sectors. In fact, many 21st century innovations will depend on the development of new materials, with increasingly stringent demands on their intrinsic properties, costs, processing conditions, and on their impacts on human health and on the environment. However, while the majority of materials used in today’s industry are considered as a commodity and, provided by predominantly resource-intensive activities, there is a great need for a transition towards a knowledge-intensive activity, by designing advanced materials with higher knowledge content, new functionalities and improved performances.

The scientific challenges are numerous, including the potential applications made possible by the new generation of materials such as organic semi-conductors, metamaterials and bioactive materials, and intensive computational material science and “green chemistry” approaches.

The cluster of excellence AMADEus is expected to have a long-term structuring role in both the academic and economic spheres through the production and transfer of cutting-edge knowledge in emerging materials science and technologies.