COST – INFORmat

Summary of the project:

Future technologies like wearables, healthcare (micro)robots, and advanced sensors require components that make rapid autonomous decisions in dynamic environments. While current electronics struggle with such complex, decentralized processing, simple biological organisms excel; octopus arms, for example, can independently solve tasks without direct brain control. Designing materials with similar built-in intelligence remains a fundamental challenge, requiring a multidisciplinary and integrated approach uniting chemistry, physics, and materials sciences. However, expertise in these areas remains scattered and a consensus on design principles distant.

INFORMat brings together European experts (and beyond) to establish core principles for intelligent soft materials. To date, it is unclear how to instill materials intelligence, but feedback and self-regulation are recognized as crucial steps to bring stimuli-responsive materials towards intelligent (life-like) materials. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, INFORMat will serve as training ground for young researchers and innovators (YRIs), widening participation and forging a cohesive generation of innovators in the emerging field of intelligent materials. The Action will define key terms, catalog promising approaches and material platforms, and develop roadmaps for advanced features such as sensing, decision-making, signaling, and movement.

The network’s experts will integrate theoretical and experimental expertise to gather data, work towards functional prototypes, and tighten collaboration for future research and innovation funding. INFORMat will also engage private/industrial partners to shape real-world applications. The resulting shared vision and capacity building will help position Europe at the forefront advanced materials development, transitioning from academic research to practical, sustainable, and economically beneficial applications.