The SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2026 will take place from May 18th – 21st, 2026, in Zakopane, Poland

 

We are excited to announce the SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2026, a premier forum for SoftComp participants to engage, discuss, network, collaborate on cutting-edge scientific research and initiate future projects in any Soft Matter fields. The SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2026 consists of three full days from Monday May 18th (lunch time) through Thursday May 21st (lunch time), 2026.

This year, the Annual Meeting will cover all the classic topics in Soft Matter while placing a special focus on the applications of Food Science.

Meeting Chairs

  • Christophe Chassenieux, CNRS Le Mans, France
  • Tommy Nylander, Lund University, Sweden

Meeting Program

Invited Speakers

  • Peter Fischer, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland – From nano to bite: Food upside down
  • Theresie Heiden-Hecht, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany – Structure and dynamics of food emulsions
  • Taco Nicolai, CNRS Le Mans, France – Gels, microgels and microcapsules from rapeseed proteins
  • Stefan Salentinig, University of Fribourg, Switzerland – Adaptive Soft Matter at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: Inspirations from Coffee & Food
  • Erik van der Linden, University of Wageningen, The Netherlands – Composite soft matter: from understanding gelation and phase behaviour towards engineering of structures with applications to food
  • Davoud Zare, Nestlè, Switzerland – Antifoam in Food: How It Breaks the Bubble

Topical Sessions

  • Food Science

General Soft Matter Sessions

  • Glasses, Colloids, and Self-Assembly
  • Biological Soft Matter
  • Polymers and Biopolymers
  • Gels and Networks
  • New Methods and Techniques
  • Surfaces, Interfaces, and Emulsions
  • Synthesis

Young Scientists Session

Poster Session

  • Two dedicated Poster Sessions
  • Posters will be on display during the whole Annual Meeting

SoftComp Young Scientist Award

    The following awards will be assigned during the Annual Meeting 2026 to young scientists for:

  •  2 Best Poster Award (500 € each)
  •  1 Best Talk Award (1000 €)

Meeting Information

Venue

The Annual Meeting 2026 will be held at the premisis of Radisson Blu Hotel & Residences, Zakopane, Poland.

Important dates
– Abstract submission deadline: 15th March 2026
– Notification of acceptance 30th March 2026
– Scientific Programme 10th April 2026
– Deadline for the registration: 18th April 2026

Call for contributions
You are kindly invited to submit the title and the abstract of your scientific contribution(s) through the abstract submission page, provided by the EUSMI portal, at https://eusmi-h2020.eu/meetings/6231e57e49fb9/r.

All submitted contributions will be practically accepted, with the possibility that in case there will be not enough time to accommodate all the requested oral contributions, some of them may become poster presentations.

Poster size
Poster format A0 portrait.

Registration

Please note the submission of a contribution is not considered as a proof of the registration.

Only registrations with complete information by April 18th, 2025, will be considered. New registrations and updates of existing registrations after April 18th, 2025, are not guaranteed and subjected to rooms availability.

SoftComp Financial Support
The SoftComp central budget will cover the full meeting costs, the subsistence and accommodation costs from lunch of May 18th through lunch of May 21st, 2026, and will provide a financial contribution to travel costs up to four persons per SoftComp group. Unless requested otherwise, the SoftComp Management will charge the four persons of each SoftComp group with most expensive costs to the SoftComp central budget.
Non SoftComp members are not eligible of the SoftComp financial contribution.

Accommodation
The participants will be lodged at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Residences, Zakopane, Poland.

The SoftComp management has booked a certain number of hotel rooms and you are welcome to apply for these rooms registering for the Annual Meeting 2026.
Rooms not booked through SoftComp will not be reimbursed.

Please note that the accommodation until May 18th and after May 21st, 2026, is not covered by the central budget. If you are anyway interested to arrive outside the SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting days, please contact the SoftComp Network office for information.

Travel
The SoftComp central budget will provide a financial contribution to travel costs up to a max of 250 euro per person (up to four persons per SoftComp group).

Flights and trains can be booked in economy class without any authorization, while the use of private car to reach Zakopane has to be authorized in advance by the SoftComp Office. Please note that the nearest airport is the international airport Krakow, with many flights daily from the major European airports.

SoftComp supports sustainable travel and is considering providing additional travel funds for participants who choose environmentally friendly transport options (such as bus or train from their origin to the conference hotel). Participants interested in this possibility are kindly asked to contact the SoftComp Project Manager (F.Carsughi@fz-juelich.de).

Dedicated transportations between the Krakow airport and the conference hotel will be organized for those who register before April 18th, 2026. Information will be provided after the deadline for registration.

In the case of a cancellation communication of a participation after April 18th, 2026, travel costs will be reimbursed for cause of force major, only.

Meals
All lunches and dinners are served at the conference venue.

Gala dinner
Gala dinner will be on May 20th, 2026, at 20:00.

Participants without the SoftComp financial contribution will be asked to pay the following costs:
– single room, including breakfast, 355 PLN per night
– double room, including breakfast, 450 PLN per night
– three bed room, including breakfast, 600 PLN per night
– city tax, 2 PLN per person per night
– lunch 115 PLN
– dinner 150 PLN
– gala dinner 200 PLN
Detailed instructions on how to pay the bills will be provided.

Contact
For any questions, please contact directly the SoftComp Project Manager (F.Carsughi@fz-juelich.de).

Annual Meeting programme
The final programme of the SoftComp/EUSMI Annual Meeting 2026 will be published here.

You must be logged in to register to this meeting. Proceed to login page.

Meeting Details

18/05/2026
21/05/2026
Zakopane, Poland
Flavio Carsughi
Research Gate