The Department of Polymer Engineering (DEP) and the Innovation Pole in Polymer Engineering (PIEP) organised Materials 2023 , which brought together the XXI Congress of the Portuguese Materials Society and the XII International Symposium on Materials, and which took place from 3rd to 6th April at the Vila Flor Cultural Centre, in Guimarães.

Elvira Fortunato, current minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and João Bordado, from Instituto Superior Técnico, were distinguished with the Career and Recognition Award of the Portuguese Society of Materials (SPM), in the closing session of this event that gathered more than 240 participants.

The final session also included interventions from the president of SPM, Jorge Lino, the vice-president of Guimarães Municipality, Adelina Pinto, and the vice-rector for Research and Innovation of UMinho, Eugénio Campos Ferreira.

The conference programme focused on the most recent advances in the area and a more sustainable future and included 155 talks in four parallel sessions, 120 poster communications, workshops, a training session, a business fair, a tribute to Professor Teresa Cidade and social moments, thus reinforcing networking and the dissemination of scientific, technical and industrial results.

Alexandre Marques, Ugo Lafont and Francisco Chinesta were the main speakers opening the work of each day. The general coordination of the initiative fell to professors Ana Vera Machado, José António Covas and Júlio Cesar Viana, from the Department of Polymer Engineering of UMinho, a national and international reference in this field.

The scientist and full professor Elvira Fortunato is a world pioneer in paper electronics, namely in transistors, memories, batteries, screens, antennas and solar cells. Full professor and chemical engineer João Bordado is the author of more than 20 patents and focuses his research on catalysis and production of reactive polymers from renewable resources.