Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Reflecting on the SupraLife RSC partnership

Hear from Dr João Borges (University of Aveiro, Portugal) who coordinated the SupraLife project

Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 101079482), the SupraLife project was a three-year initiative which brought together researchers from the University of Aveiro, the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Bordeaux and its affiliated entities Bordeaux INP and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) with a focus on supramolecular biomaterials’ chemistry research. As the project comes to an end, we reflect on how collaborations from RSC journals have supported several of the SupraLife events and hear from Dr João Borges from the University of Aveiro who coordinated the project.

We interviewed SupraLife project coordinator, Dr Joao Borges (University of Aveiro, Portugal) to hear about the positive impact of RSC journal support on the SupraLife initiative

The initiative led to a number of events, including three summer schools and one final international conference held at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, supported by RSC journals Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Biomaterials Science, Materials Advances and ChemComm.

The scientific networking and training events not only brought together world-renowned researchers working on supramolecular and biomaterials chemistry fields to Aveiro but allowed for free training opportunities for students and early-career researchers across the university and beyond, addressing topics such as leadership, career development, scientific writing and publishing and mental health, to name a few.

‘The way we thought about the SupraLife events was about bringing together world-renowned scientists and students and early-career researchers and stimulating the exchange of knowledge and expertise, as well as mentorship in an informal atmosphere. In particular, each of the SupraLife events we organized in Aveiro, Portugal, gathered about 150 participants. We believe this is the right size to enable participants to meet one another and exchange with distinguished scientists in the field. In addition, the fact that the SupraLife events run without parallel sessions enabled the early-career researchers to attend a very focused meeting, present their research findings in front of and receive invaluable feedback from a specialized audience in moving forward their research,’ Dr Borges explains.

The RSC was delighted to support poster prize awards at the second and third summer , and the final international conference, to help recognise and congratulate leading early-career researchers in the field of supramolecular and biomaterials chemistry. The poster prize winners can be discovered on our blog for the second school, third school and the final international conference.

‘The support from the RSC journals in two schools and final international conference has been really important for SupraLife and the community of early-career researchers attending the events in different dimensions. For instance, in all these three events, the RSC journals sponsored the three best poster prizes assigned to young scientists, including offering a 1-year free RSC membership which is very important for supporting them in advancing their professional development,’ says Dr Borges.

Left: Supralife 2nd school poster prize winner, Catherine Meyer, with RSC staff, Zita Zachariah and Dr Joao Borges. Right: SupraLife final international school poster prize winner, Thibault Sampon with Dr Joao Borges

‘In my point-of-view, it is really important for young scientists to have their research work being recognized with an award. I mean, within academia it is very important and rewarding to receive prizes, honors and awards irrespectively on the career stage in which we are, but even more important for the young scientists who are in the infancy in their scientific careers. It is a stimulus for excelling in science and keeping on working in pursuing their dreams. It is not only the prize itself, but the recognition it entails and the support and advice they get from the RSC in advancing their careers’.

We were also delighted to collaborate with the organisers of the SupraLife events, Dr. João Borges (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Prof. Patricia Y. W. Dankers (Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands), Prof. João F. Mano (University of Aveiro, Portugal) and Prof. Sébastien Lecommandoux (University of Bordeaux, France), on a themed collection published in Journal of Materials Chemistry B. The themed collection on ‘Bioinspired Functional Supramolecular Systems’ intended to provide an up-to-date platform for sharing latest developments in the field of bioinspired functional supramolecular systems. It also aimed to encourage more interdisciplinary research and collaborative efforts at the intersection of supramolecular chemistry, (bio)materials science, and biology to inspire breakthrough research in the fascinating field of bioinspired supramolecular systems aimed at more closely emulating the complexity and dynamics of natural biological systems and creating life-like material systems, as per the values of the SupraLife initiative.

We encourage you to explore the collection here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/articlecollectionlanding?sercode=tb&themeid=a1208a88-2407-46f0-945d-49cff462c807

‘[The collection] has been very well received by the community. To date, it has gathered over 48 articles, including an editorial, and provides an up-to-date platform for sharing latest developments in the field of bioinspired functional supramolecular systems.’

We asked Dr Borges why he approached the RSC to support the SupraLife schools and final international conference. ‘I knew that the RSC is very much into supporting young scientists and supporting their career growth so, I thought this would be a win-win situation. We could benefit in terms of sponsorship, not only in terms of poster prizes but also in terms of enabling networking opportunities to bring together and foster the exchange among students and early-career researchers in an informal atmosphere, as well as by hosting staff from the RSC. In fact, we not only hosted Dr. Zita Zachariah, who talked about scientific publishing and careers in the publishing world, but also Dr. Ale Palermo, Head of Global Inclusion at the RSC, who talked about the importance of imparting a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in science and challenging the traditional measures of success.’

Overall, the collaborations between the RSC and the SupraLife events have been positive and have enabled the support of up-and-coming researchers working on supramolecular biomaterials’ chemistry research. While the project has come to an end, we are delighted to have supported the vision to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations and hope that researchers will consider publishing their latest supramolecular research with the RSC.

To find out more about the SupraLife initiative, we encourage you to read this blog from the CICECO at the University of Aveiro reflecting on the success of the program and explaining more about its intentions.

https://www.ciceco.ua.pt/?tabela=geral_article&menu=255&language=eng&id_article=2915

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s flagship event for the RSC Materials Chemistry Community, the 17th International Conference on Materials Chemistry, was held in Edinburgh from 7 – 10 July 2025. With a record number of delegates (600!), 150 speakers and over 400 posters,  the engagement of the speakers and delegates was immense and the quality of research presented was truly excellent. Royal Society of Chemistry journals; Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Materials Advances, Dalton Transactions, RSC Sustainability, Biomaterials Science, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances and Nanoscale Horizons, were delighted to sponsor the best poster awards. With the enormous number of quality posters, the decision to select the winners by our poster judging panels was a difficult one. Please join us in congratulating the poster prize winners of MC-17!

Structure-property relationship and electrical conductivity of CuSCN-based 2D coordination polymers
Jetnipat Songkerdthong
VISTEC, Thailand

Methylammonium tetrafluoroborate: a new thermomaterial for cold storage and solid state cooling
Pedro Dafonte-Rodríguez
Universidade da Coruña, Spain

Waveguide encoded films: self-written light-guiding architectures for indoor light harvesting
Fariha Mahmood
University of Cambridge, UK

Thermochemical hydrogen production via microwave-assisted reduction at moderate temperatures using Sr2CoTi0.7Nb0.3O6-δ perovskite
Susanna Oliveros Cantando
CIC energiGUNE & University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain

Nature-inspired xanthenoxanthene-4,10-dione a new building block for sustainable organic electronics
Stefan Warrington
Loughborough University, UK

A biporous hybrid coordination network pair enables propylene/propane separation
Asif Raza
University of Limerick, Ireland

Exploring the crystallisation pathways of porous organic cages and the effect of solvent on polymorphism
Ruiqing Zhu
Imperial College London, UK

Composite polymer microstructures fabricated via 2-photon polymerisation for structural colouration and analyte sensing
Teodora Faraone
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, were delighted to sponsor poster prizes at the RSC-IIT Indore symposium 2023 on 19th – 20th January. Our very own Executive Editor, Michaela Mühlberg was in attendance with Renaud Demadrille, and Goutam De, Associate Editors for the Journals of Materials Chemistry.

We’d like to congratulate the poster prize winners:

(left to right): Goutam De, Michaela Muehlberg, Yamini Patel, Renaud Demadrille, Nida Shahid, Rajneesh Misra, Lalita Wagh, Aparna Ganguly, Shaikh M. Mobin.

Ms. Yamini Patel, DAVV University, Indore: Best Poster

Ms. Lalita Wagh, Dept of Chem, IIT Indore: Best Poster

Ms. Nida Shahid, Dept of Chem, IIT Indore: Best Flash Talk

We hope everyone who attended had as great a time as we did and would like to once again congratulate the winners and thank the organisers, Professors Misra and Mobin, for such an interesting symposium.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, C and Materials Horizons were delighted to sponsor poster prizes at the Next Generation Materials for Solar Photovoltaics 2023. This meeting covered exciting recent advances in solar photovoltaics with a focus on materials for organic, inorganic and hybrid thin film cells.

We hope all who joined us at The Royal Society of Chemistry’s historic home at Burlington House in the heart of Mayfair, London had a fantastic time and enjoyed it as much as we did.

We’d like to congratulate the winners of the JMC A, C and Materials Horizon poster prizes:

From left to right:

Abigail Collins, University of Cambridge, winner of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C prize

Natalie Flores-Diaz, Newcastle University, winner of the Materials Horizons prize

Richard Pacalaj, Imperial College London, winner of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A prize

We’d also like to thank everyone involved for organising the conference and ensuring it ran smoothly.

In September 2022, ElectroChem 22, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry‘s Electrochemistry and Electroanalytical Sensing Systems interest Groups, and the Society of Chemical Industry‘s Electrochemical Technology group, took place. Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances were delighted to sponsor the poster prize.

We would like to congratulate the winner of the poster prize. Check out the award winner below:

The winner, Joanne Searle (pictured right), with Neil Robertson our Journals of Materials Chemistry and Materials Advances Associate Editor.

30 September-2 October 2019

5th International Conference on Perovskite Solar Cells and Optoelectronics, PSCO-19 – will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

We are pleased to announce that the 5th International Conference on Perovskite Solar Cells and Optoelectronics ( PSCO19 ) will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 30 September to 2 October 2019 (Mon-Wed).

We kindly invite you to register and submit an abstract to present your research.

The programme will include a combination of invited talks, contributing talks and poster presentations in a meeting which will bring a broad spectrum of the community together to discuss and share knowledge on the latest advances in perovskite materials, devices and photophysical and optoelectronic properties and phenomena.

It will host a special session dedicated to speakers working in industry and two sessions will be sponsored by two European Projects on perovskites, Espresso and PerTPV.

Based on the input from previous conferences, we will extend the scientific and social programme over three full days, this will allow us to run two parallel sessions in the afternoons, and have more time for discussion.

Educating young researchers is at the core of our mission, which will be enabled by the opening tutorial lectures, in addition to a whole series of invited talks by world leading scientists in their respective specialities.

Please visit the conference website at www.psco-conference.org for further information.

Henry Snaith, Mohammad Nazeeruddin, Filippo De Angelis, Antonio Abate & Annamaria Petrozza Organisers and Scientific committee of the 5th International Conference on Perovskite Solar Cells and Optoelectronics ( PSCO-2019 )