The EPICUR University Alliance has selected our SMILE consortium as one of five projects awarded under the 2025 Seed Funding, receiving € 150k.
SMILE will connect four interdisciplinary researchers from EPICUR universities to establish a nucleus for a European consortium in Intelligent Soft Matter Engineering. The consortium consists of Edoardo Milana (University of Freiburg), Ahmad Rafsanjani (SDU Soft Robotics), Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette (Strasbourg University), and Antoine Deblais (University of Amsterdam). Through graduate student exchanges, collaborative research, and a joint Graduate Research Symposium, the project will explore how nonlinear mechanics, kirigami, foams, and active metamaterials, can be harnessed to create intelligent soft matter systems. SMILE will strengthen interdisciplinary skills and lay the foundation for future European initiatives in soft robotic matter and soft functional materials.
