Roadmap for animate matter

Giorgio Volpe; Nuno A M Araujo; Maria Guix; Mark Miodownik; Nicolas Martin; Laura Alvarez; Juliane Simmchen; Roberto di Leonardo; Nicola Pellicciotta; Quentin Martinet; Jérémie Palacci; Wai Kit Ng; Dhruv Saxena; Riccardo Sapienza; Sara Nadine; João Mano; Reza Mahdavi; Caroline Beck Adiels; Joe Forth; Christian Santangelo; Stefano Palagi; Ji Min Seok; Victoria A Webster-Wood; Shuhong Wang; Lining Yao; Amirreza Aghakhani; Thomas Barois; Hamid Kellay; Corentin Coulais; Martin van Hecke; Christopher J Pierce; Tianyu Wang; Baxi Chong; Daniel I Goldman; Andreagiovanni Reina; Vito Trianni; Giovanni Volpe; Richard Beckett; Sean P Nair; Rachel Armstrong

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/adebd3

Roadmap for animate matter

Giorgio Volpe
, Nuno A M Araujo
, Maria Guix
, Mark Miodownik
, Nicolas Martin
, Laura Alvarez
, Juliane Simmchen
, Roberto di Leonardo
, Nicola Pellicciotta
, Quentin Martinet
, Jérémie Palacci
, Wai Kit Ng
, Dhruv Saxena
, Riccardo Sapienza
, Sara Nadine
, João Mano
, Reza Mahdavi
, Caroline Beck Adiels
, Joe Forth
, Christian Santangelo

Stefano Palagi, Ji Min Seok, Victoria A Webster-Wood, Shuhong Wang, Lining Yao, Amirreza Aghakhani, Thomas Barois, Hamid Kellay, Corentin Coulais, Martin van Hecke, Christopher J Pierce, Tianyu Wang, Baxi Chong, Daniel I Goldman, Andreagiovanni Reina, Vito Trianni, Giovanni Volpe, Richard Beckett, Sean P Nair, Rachel Armstrong

Pure And Applied Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

21 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Humanity has long sought inspiration from nature to innovate materials and devices. As science advances, nature-inspired materials are becoming part of our lives. Animate materials, characterized by their activity, adaptability, and autonomy, emulate properties of living systems. While only biological materials fully embody these principles, artificial versions are advancing rapidly, promising transformative impacts in the circular economy, health and climate resilience within a generation. This roadmap presents authoritative perspectives on animate materials across different disciplines and scales, highlighting their interdisciplinary nature and potential applications in diverse fields including nanotechnology, robotics and the built environment. It underscores the need for concerted efforts to address shared challenges such as complexity management, scalability, evolvability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical and environmental considerations. The framework defined by classifying materials based on their level of animacy can guide this emerging field to encourage cooperation and responsible development. By unravelling the mysteries of living matter and leveraging its principles, we can design materials and systems that will transform our world in a more sustainable manner.

Original language	English
Article number	333501
Number of pages	79
Journal	Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Volume	37
Issue number	33
Early online date	3 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/adebd3
Publication status	Published - 18 Aug 2025

Funding

Living Architecture is Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Future Emerging Technologies Open programme (2016\u20132019) Grant Agreement 686585 a consortium of 6 collaborating institutions\u2014Newcastle University, University of Trento, University of the West of England, Spanish National Research Council, Explora Biotech and Liquifer Systems Group. The Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment (ALICE) project is funded by an EU Innovation Award for the development of a bio-digital \u2018brick\u2019 prototype, a collaboration between Newcastle University, Translating Nature, and the University of the West of England (2019\u20132021) under EU Grant Agreement No. 851246. Microbial Hydroponics: Circular Sustainable Electrobiosynthesis (Mi-Hy) is Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement Number 101114746, which is a collaboration between Beneficiaries, KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Southampton (UK), SONY Computer Science Laboratory (France), BioFaction KG (Austria), Spanish National Research Council (Spain), and Associated Partners, the University of the West of England (UK) and University of Southampton (UK). Mi-Hy is also supported hrough the interdisciplinary KU Leuven Institute for Cultural Heritage (HERKUL). Microbial Hydroponics: Circular Sustainable Electrobiosynthesis (Mi-Hy) is Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement Number 101114746, which is a collaboration between Beneficiaries, KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Southampton (UK), SONY Computer Science Laboratory (France), BioFaction KG (Austria), Spanish National Research Council (Spain), and Associated Partners, the University of the West of England (UK) and University of Southampton (UK). Mi-Hy is also supported through the interdisciplinary KU Leuven Institute for Cultural Heritage (HERKUL). JS acknowledges a fellowship from the German Fulbright Cottrell foundation. N. A. M. A. and G. V. (Giorgio) acknowledge support from the UCL MAPS Faculty Visiting Fellowship programme. A.R. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany\u2019s Excellence Strategy\u2014EXC 2117\u2013422037984. V.T. acknowledges support from the projects FAIR (Future Artificial Intelligence Research, PNRR MUR Cod. PE0000013\u2014CUP: E63C22001940 006) and BABOTS (Horizon Europe, PathFinder Open EIC Work Programme, GA N. 101098722). N. A. M. A. acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under Contracts No. UIDB/00618/2020 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/00618/2020 ) and UIDP/00618/2020 ( https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/00618/2020 ). Living Architecture is Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Future Emerging Technologies Open programme (2016\u20132019) Grant Agreement 686585 a consortium of 6 collaborating institutions\u2014Newcastle University, University of Trento, University of the West of England, Spanish National Research Council, Explora Biotech and Liquifer Systems Group. The Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment (ALICE) project is funded by an EU Innovation Award for the development of a bio-digital \u2018brick\u2019 prototype, a collaboration between Newcastle University, Translating Nature, and the University of the West of England (2019\u20132021) under EU Grant Agreement No. 851246. L Alvarez and N Martin acknowledge funding from IdEx Bordeaux and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-23-CE06-0007-01 and ANR-21-CE06-0022-01), and support by the Univ. Bordeaux Research Network Frontiers of Life. N Martin also thanks R\u00E9gion Nouvelle-Aquitaine (AAPR 2020\u20132019-8330510) for funding. We want to thank Prof. J.C. Baret and Prof. S Mann for stimulating, fruitful, and enjoyable collaborations and V. Willems for her contributions to some of the work cited here. L Alvarez thanks her peers at the ESA FTD Soft Matter and Biophysics group for fruitful discussions. Authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the AHRC (AH/R001987/1) and EPSRC (EP/X026892/1) and The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project CELLOIDS: Cell-inspired particle-based intelligent microrobots, Grant Agreement No. 948590).\u202F Funding from the Horizon Europe ERC Consolidator Grant MAPEI (Grant No. 101001267) and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (Grant No. 2019.0079). M. G. acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science through Ramon y Cajal Grant No. RYC2020-945030119-I and the grant PID2023-151682NA-I00, as well as to the AEI Unidades de Excelencia Mar\u00EDa de Maeztu\u00BB 2021 CEX2021-001202-M, and AGAUR (2021 SGR 00270) and the European program under grant HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01 EVA (Grant No. 101047081). This work was sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation under CAREER Award No. 2044785 and by the Army Research Office under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-23-2-0138. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Office or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation herein. M. M acknowledges the support of UKRI funding EP/V011804/1, BB/Y007972/1. CC acknowledges funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research under Grant Agreement Vidi 213-131-3. The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation Career Grant IIS-2047912 (LY). The authors would like to thank their colleagues at the Morphing Matter Lab for their constant source of insights and inspiration.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

animate matter
animate materials
roadmap
active matter

Access to Document

10.1088/1361-648X/adebd3Licence: CC BY 4.0

Volpe_2025_J._Phys.__Condens._Matter_37_333501Final published version, 8.58 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

Volpe, G., Araujo, N. A. M., Guix, M., Miodownik, M., Martin, N., Alvarez, L., Simmchen, J., di Leonardo, R., Pellicciotta, N., Martinet, Q., Palacci, J., Ng, W. K., Saxena, D., Sapienza, R., Nadine, S., Mano, J., Mahdavi, R., Beck Adiels, C., Forth, J., ... Armstrong, R. (2025). Roadmap for animate matter. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 37(33), Article 333501. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/adebd3

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title = "Roadmap for animate matter",

abstract = "Humanity has long sought inspiration from nature to innovate materials and devices. As science advances, nature-inspired materials are becoming part of our lives. Animate materials, characterized by their activity, adaptability, and autonomy, emulate properties of living systems. While only biological materials fully embody these principles, artificial versions are advancing rapidly, promising transformative impacts in the circular economy, health and climate resilience within a generation. This roadmap presents authoritative perspectives on animate materials across different disciplines and scales, highlighting their interdisciplinary nature and potential applications in diverse fields including nanotechnology, robotics and the built environment. It underscores the need for concerted efforts to address shared challenges such as complexity management, scalability, evolvability, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical and environmental considerations. The framework defined by classifying materials based on their level of animacy can guide this emerging field to encourage cooperation and responsible development. By unravelling the mysteries of living matter and leveraging its principles, we can design materials and systems that will transform our world in a more sustainable manner.",

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Volpe, G, Araujo, NAM, Guix, M, Miodownik, M, Martin, N, Alvarez, L, Simmchen, J, di Leonardo, R, Pellicciotta, N, Martinet, Q, Palacci, J, Ng, WK, Saxena, D, Sapienza, R, Nadine, S, Mano, J, Mahdavi, R, Beck Adiels, C, Forth, J, Santangelo, C, Palagi, S, Seok, JM, Webster-Wood, VA, Wang, S, Yao, L, Aghakhani, A, Barois, T, Kellay, H, Coulais, C, van Hecke, M, Pierce, CJ, Wang, T, Chong, B, Goldman, DI, Reina, A, Trianni, V, Volpe, G, Beckett, R, Nair, SP & Armstrong, R 2025, 'Roadmap for animate matter', Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, vol. 37, no. 33, 333501. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/adebd3

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AU - Guix, Maria

AU - Miodownik, Mark

AU - Martin, Nicolas

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AU - di Leonardo, Roberto

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AU - Mahdavi, Reza

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AU - Santangelo, Christian

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AU - Wang, Tianyu

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AU - Goldman, Daniel I

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AU - Trianni, Vito

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AU - Nair, Sean P

AU - Armstrong, Rachel

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Roadmap for animate matter

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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