Annual Meeting 2026

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

We are excited to announce the SoftComp Annual Meeting 2026, a premier forum for SoftComp participants to engage, discuss, and collaborate on cutting-edge scientific research and joint future goals.

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

The meeting consists of three full days from Monday May 19^8h (lunch time) through Thursday May 21^st (lunch time), 2026.

The meeting is a forum to discuss scientific work, to network, and to initiate future projects in any Soft Matter fields.

Meeting Chairs

• Christophe Chassenieux, CNRS Le Mans, France

• Tommy Nylander, Lund University, Sweden

Meeting Program

Invited Speakers

• Peter Fischer, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
• Theresie Heiden-Hecht, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
• Marta Martinez, CSIC, Madrid Spain
• Taco Nicolai, CNRS Le Mans, France
• Stefan Salentinig, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
• Anja Wagemans, TU Dresden, Germany

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

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

• the best 2 posters
• the best talk

Poster Session

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

SoftComp Young Scientist Award

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

Meeting Informatioon

Venue

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

Important dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 15^th March 2026
• Notification of acceptance 30^th March 2026
• Scientific Programme 10^th April 2026
• Deadline for the registration: 18^th 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 (Please click here).

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

Poster size

Poster format A0 portrait.

Registration

• for SoftComp members https://eu-softcomp.net/news/meetings/annual-meeting-2026/register
• EUSMI users are also allowed to attend the SoftComp/EUSMI Meeting. EUSMI users shall first sign up in the SoftComp portal at https://eu-softcomp.net/user-area (please select the EUSMI user flag) and only after the account has been approved, they can register for the Annual Meeting 2026.

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

New registrations and updates of existing registrations after April 18^th, 2025, are not guaranteed and subjected to rooms availability.

Only registrations with complete information by April 18^th, 2025, will be considered.

Accommodation, Travel, Costs and SoftComp Financial Support

The management of SoftComp 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.

The SoftComp central budget will cover the full meeting costs, the subsistence and accommodation costs from May 18^th through May 21^st, 2026, and will provide a financial contribution to travel costs (up to a max of 250 euro per person) 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, all others will pay their stay directly at the hotel at the check-out.

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. 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 18^th, 2026. Information will be be provided after the deadline for registration.

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

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

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

Meals

All lunches and dinners are served at the conference venue.

Gala dinner

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

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.