The 6th International Conference on Materials
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The 6th International Conference on Materials
From Innovation to Translation
Part of the International Conference on Materials series
19 April 2026
20 May 2026
24 June 2026
29 July 2026
30 August 2026
Biomaterials, Bioelectronics, Energy, Electronics, Magnetics, Catalysis, Nanoparticles, Liquid Crystals, Environment
Welcome from the Chairs
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to welcome you to The 6th International Conference on Materials (ICM 2026), which will take place in Manchester, UK, from 16 to 18 September 2026. This conference aims to bring together researchers, industry professionals, and experts from around the world to share the latest advancements, exchange ideas, and foster collaborations in the field of Materials Science.
Over the course of three days, we will explore a wide range of topics—biomaterials and bioelectronics; materials for the environment; energy, electronics, and magnetic materials; and materials for catalysis—through keynote lectures, oral presentations, and poster sessions. Our program is designed to provide an engaging platform for discussing cutting-edge research, emerging challenges, and future directions in the field.
We encourage you to actively participate by presenting your work, engaging in discussions, and networking with fellow attendees. Beyond the scientific sessions, Manchester offers a welcoming setting to connect with colleagues while enjoying its picturesque architecture, cultural history, and strong academia.
We look forward to an inspiring and productive conference and to welcoming you to ICM 2026, hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University's outstanding new home for its Faculty of Science and Engineering, The Dalton Building.
Sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Prof. Dr. Andreas Taubert
Dr. Ingo Dierking
ICM 2026 Chairs
Conference Secretariat
Mr. Cédric Spinnler
Ms. Julia Speich
Ms. Shae Turner
Dr. Ana Sanchís
Conference Email: icm2026@mdpi.com
Event Chairs
Maryam Tabrizian is a full professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering with a joint appointment with the Faculty of Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences at McGill University. She holds a Canada Research Chair Tier I in Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine. She has received many prestigious awards and fellowships including FRQS-Chercheur National, Guggenheim Foundation, Biomaterials Science & Engineering-International, RSC Academy of Sciences, ADEA Leadership Institute, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellowships, and James McGill Professorship. Her research focuses on the development of biomimetic materials, nanoplexes with targeting and tracking/imaging capabilities, and lab-on-a-chip devices. She has been the Editor-in-Chief of Materials since 2011.
Prof. Andreas Taubert is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Andreas Taubert is a materials chemist with an interest in energy and environmental materials, focusing both on their synthesis and their properties. Since 2012, he has been a tenured Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry and Hybrid Materials at the University of Potsdam. Previous stations include the University of Basel, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Université de Strasbourg, and Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. Current research focuses on ionic liquids as tools for advanced materials design in relevant technological fields such as solar energy conversion, electrochemistry, water splitting, and water treatment.
Dr. Ingo Dierking received his Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Clausthal in Germany. After employment at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in the US, working on electronic paper, he joined Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden, as a Humboldt fellow. There, he was appointed docent, before joining the University of Darmstadt in Germany as a lecturer for several years and eventually moving to the University of Manchester in 2002, where he is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Ingo Dierking has published more than 170 scientific papers, as well as several books on the topic of liquid crystal research. He is the 2009 awardee of the Hilsum Medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society (BLCS), the 2016 winner of the Samsung Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence of the International Liquid Crystal Society (ILCS), and the 2021 awardee of the Gray Medal. Ingo Dierking is the editor of Liquid Crystals Today, the current President of the ILCS, and a former Chair of the BLCS. His current research interests are broadly focused on soft-matter systems, with an emphasis on liquid crystals, and LC-based composites with polymers and nanoparticles.
Plenary Speakers
Dr. Willerth is a full professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria. She has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia.
She recently founded the start-up company Axolotl Biosciences, which sells high-quality bioinks for bioprinting human tissue models. She is an active member of the steering committee of the BC Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab.
Moreso, she is a Fellow of the International Society of Biomaterials Science and Engineering.
Dr. Willerth served as the acting director of UVic's Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program from 2018–2021 and as the President of the Canadian Biomaterials Society from 2018–2019. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars in 2021. Additionally, Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. awarded her their teaching award of excellence in the same year.
Keynote Speakers
University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Ivan I. Smalyukh is a tenured professor in the Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the Founding Director of the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter, as well as a founding fellow of the Renewable Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NREL. He is an elected fellow of APS, AAAS, Optica, and SPIE as well.
He has received many awards and holds a Guinness record for developing the world's most transparent material.
His research spans from liquid crystals to magnets, colloids, metamaterials, bacterial biofilms, knot topology, chirality, photonics, renewable energy, and new characterization techniques. He experimentally discovered liquid crystal hopfions and helikonotons and new condensed matter phases like monoclinic nematics and biaxial colloidal ferromagnets. Additionally, he developed materials for unusual thermoelectrics and waste heat recovery and transparent aerogels to boost efficiency of building envelopes.
Instructions for Authors
ICM 2026 will accept abstracts only. The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to contribute a full manuscript to a Special Issue related to the conference in the open access journal Materials.
The conference will be held fully in person; it is not possible to participate online.
Please note that abstract submission and conference registration are two separate processes. Please use your institutional email address for both processes.
To present your research at the event
- Create an account on Sciforum if you do not have one and then click on ‘New Submission’ in the upper-right corner of the window; or, click on ‘Submit Abstract’ at the top of this webpage.
- Choose a session that is best suited for your research.
- Submit an abstract in English—the word limits are a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 300 words.
- The deadline to submit your abstract is 19 April 2026. You should be notified about its acceptance by 20 May 2026.
- Upon submission, you can select if you wish to be considered for oral or poster presentation (or both). Following assessment by the Chairs and Scientific Committee, you will be notified by 20 May 2026 whether your contribution has been accepted for oral or poster presentation.
- Please note that, in order to finalize the scientific program in due time, at least one registration by any of the authors, denoted as the Covering Author, is required to cover the presentation and publication of any accepted abstract. The Covering Author registration deadline is 29 July 2026. Your abstract will be withdrawn if your registration is not complete by this date.
Oral Presentations
Short talks will be 15 min long, including questions (12+3 Q&A). The typical presentation should be up to a 10–12-minute talk. Please ensure that your slides are formatted in a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio.
Flash Poster Presentations
Flash poster presentations, selected from poster submissions by the Chairs, will take place in a special session in the main conference room, lasting 3 minutes each. Presenters can prepare two to three slides featuring the main figures of their poster or display their entire poster on the screen. There will not be a Q&A segment following the flash poster presentations.
Additionally, a vertical poster board for the poster session will be provided. Further details about poster presentations can be found below.
Poster Presentations
Each presenter will be provided with a vertical poster board. Maximum poster size is limited to A0: 84 x 120 cm / 33 x 47 in (width x height) in the vertical orientation (portrait). Please print your poster prior to the conference. A plan for the poster session will be circulated later. For suggestions on poster design, click the button below.
Poster Sessions
Guidelines:
- Please print your poster before the conference and bring it with you. We will not provide on-site printing services or print it for you in advance.
- Posters should not be hung up or taken down during sessions with ongoing presentations. Please do so only during breaks, before sessions begin.
- Each presenter will be provided with a vertical poster board. Note that the maximum poster size is limited to A0: 84 x 120 cm / 33 x 47 in (width x height) in vertical orientation (portrait).
Registration
The conference will be held fully in person; it is not possible to participate online. The registration fee includes attendance at all conference sessions, morning/afternoon coffee breaks, lunches, a conference bag, and a program book. One single registration covers up to one oral and one poster submission. Participation in the conference is considered final only once the registration fees have been paid. The number of participants is limited: once the number of paid registrations reaches the maximum number of participants, unpaid registrations will be canceled.
When registering, please provide us with your institutional email address. This will accelerate the registration process.
Important Information
Please note that abstract submission and conference registration are two separate processes. During registration, please provide us with the same email address you used to submit your abstract(s). Otherwise, leave us a comment in the registration form, providing the email address used during the submission process. In addition, please use your institutional email address for both processes. If you are registering several people under the same registration order, please do not use the same email address for each person but their individual institutional email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
In order to finalize the scientific program in due time, at least one registration by any of the authors, denoted as the Covering Author, is required to cover the presentation and publication of any accepted abstract. The Covering Author registration deadline is 29 July 2026. Your abstract will be withdrawn if your registration is not complete by this date.
Participants of the event will be able to download an electronic Certificate of Attendance by accessing their dashboards on Sciforum.net once the event is concluded. The certificates will be found under the "My Certificates" category.
Partnering Societies
Members from partnering societies are granted a 20% discount on all registration fees. Please ask the society representative for a discount code to activate your registration discount, or ensure that you provide us with proof of your membership in one of our partnering societies. Are you a member of a society that isn't partnering with the conference? Contact us to discuss a possible partnership!
Group Registration
Groups of five or more attendees are offered a 10% discount on the registration fees. To enjoy this discount, you need to complete one multiple registration by selecting the number of people attending in each category (type of registration) during the first step of the registration process.
Reduced fees
If you are affiliated with a university in a low- or middle-income country, you are automatically eligible for a price reduction. However, please note that the reduced price will only be added to your registration when it is processed. This means that you do not have to pay the stated price immediately upon registration, and you will receive an invoice with the price adjustment after you have registered. You can find the list of low- and middle-income countries by clicking the button below.
Registration Fees
|
Early Bird Until 24 June 2026 |
Regular Until 30 August 2026 |
Supported documents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academic | 700.00 GBP | 800.00 GBP | |
| Student | 400.00 GBP | 400.00 GBP |
Scanned copy or photograph of your current student ID is required. |
| Early Career Researcher | 450.00 GBP | 450.00 GBP |
Proof of graduation date (scanned copy of diploma, university profile page screenshot, etc.) is required. |
| Editorial Board Member/Guest Editor of Materials | 550.00 GBP | 650.00 GBP | |
| Author/Reviewer of Materials | 600.00 GBP | 700.00 GBP | |
| Non-Academic | 1000.00 GBP | 1100.00 GBP |
| Chairs, Plenary/Keynote Speakers, and Scientific Committee Members |
Active discounts
Group of 5: 10% discount
Note: Group size refers to the number of registered attendees in the same registration order.
Cancellation policy
| Cancellation of paid registration is possible under the terms listed below: | |
| > 2 months before the conference | Full refund but 100 GBP is retained for administration |
| > 1 month before the conference | Refund 50% of the applying fees |
| > 2 weeks before the conference | Refund 25% of the applying fees |
| < 2 weeks before the conference | No refund |
Disclaimer
In the unlikely event that MDPI deems it necessary to cancel the conference, all pre-paid registration fees will be reimbursed. MDPI shall not be liable for reimbursing the cost of travel or accommodation arrangements made by individual delegates.
Insurance
The organizers do not accept liability for personal accident, loss, or damage to private property incurred as a result of participation in ICM 2026. Delegates are advised to arrange appropriate insurance to cover travel, cancellation, or medical costs, and theft or damage of belongings.
MDPI Conference Admissions Policy
- All registered conference delegates are asked to always wear their badges throughout the conference.
- Conference sessions, the catering area, and the poster area are solely restricted to badge holders. Any person attending these areas without a badge will be asked to leave the premises.
- Badge holders must not allow their badges to be worn by anyone else. Any failure to do so is likely to lead to the badge holder and the person wearing the badge being removed from the premises.
- Press badges are restricted to publishers, editors, journalists, broadcasters, and web bloggers associated with the conference subject area. Members of the press may be asked to produce accreditation in the form of a photocopy of a recognized press or media card, a business card, a letter from the editor, or an official web address linking to a press release in order to verify their position.
- Photographs and videos may be taken during the conference. Anyone attending the conference consents to such photography and filming without compensation and confirms that the Organizers shall be entitled to use such photographs and videos, which may include photographs and videos of visitors, for the purpose of marketing the conference in the future and for exploitation in any and all media, without liability.
Payment methods
Wire transfer, Credit card
Currencies accepted by this event
Swiss francs (CHF) , Euros (EUR) , US dollars (USD) , Pounds sterling (GBP) , Japanese yen (JPY) , Canadian dollars (CAD) and Singapore dollars (SGD)
Location and Venue
Manchester
Manchester is in northwestern England, with a population directly in the city of approximately half a million people.
Unofficially called “The Capitol of the North”, it is known for being the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and many will be familiar with its world-renowned football clubs. The city is also famous for its impact on the music scene in the UK—several highly successful musicians, such as The Smiths and Oasis, had their roots in Manchester. In 2002, the Commonwealth Games were held in the city, and the Manchester Velodrome played a big role in revitalizing its eastern area.
From an academic standpoint, it is home to two of the UK’s largest universities, in addition to the Royal Northern College of Music and University of Salford, the latter of which has a strong presence in the media and healthcare fields.
Around Canal Street, The Village brings a welcoming atmosphere, and in the Millenium Quarter, the Manchester Cathedral is a picturesque stop for visitors. The Gallery of Costume and the Science and Industry Museum also make for popular excursions, along with green spaces and world-class events, including the Manchester International Festival.
Restaurants, bars, shops, and galleries are easy to find in the city, and its great transport links will allow you to enjoy the conference and do some further exploring!
For a complete overview, visit wikitravel.org or see visitmanchester.com.
The Dalton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University
Home to over 44,000 students, Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the UK’s largest and most popular universities, based in the heart of Manchester. Its campus offers state-of-the-art facilities and innovative teaching, combined with outstanding research and award-winning degree apprenticeships that help students thrive in their careers.
The Dalton Building is its new home for the Faculty of Science and Engineering — a state-of-the-art environment with exceptional facilities and social spaces.
Address: Chester St, Manchester M1 5GD, United Kingdom
Visa Information
Please note that you must apply for your own visa. MDPI is not responsible for any part of the visa application process of attendees. However, MDPI can provide a Visa Support Letter. To be eligible for such a document, the criteria below must be fulfilled.
Visa Support Letter
- Applicant must have paid for registration and submitted an abstract in order to receive a letter of support.
- Applicant must provide us with a scan of their valid, in-date passport that contains a photo of them.
- Applicant must provide us with a letter of support from their institution to confirm that it supports the delegate attending the meeting.
- This must be carried out in good time before the meeting; "last minute" requests will not be processed.
More useful information on visa application
Partnership Opportunities
Sponsoring
We invite you and your company to showcase your brand to a diverse audience of professionals and become a vital part of ICM 2026. Explore our sponsorship opportunities and join us in shaping the future of materials research and innovation.
From branding in highly visible conference materials and events to an exclusive presentation opportunity, find the perfect sponsorship package tailored to your needs in our sponsorship brochure, available soon!
If you have any questions or wish to discuss any further options, please do not hesitate to contact our Conference Sponsorship Specialist, Eric Albert (eric.albert@mdpi.com), or the Conference Secretariat. Connect with us today to secure your spot and maximize your impact.
Society Collaboration
Are you part of a society and interested in ICM 2026? Contact us at icm2026@mdpi.com to discuss a media partnership where your society members can access a 20% discount on registration fees!
Sponsors and Partners
Organizers
