The scientific objective of SoftComp is to obtain a detailed understanding of the physical mechanisms and properties of complex, multi-component soft matter composites. With the increasing complexity of composite materials, the number of variables becomes so large that an incremental trial-and-error approach to discovering new properties becomes increasingly difficult. A knowledge-based approach, on the other hand, allows to fully utilise the potential of these systems to vary, control and switch properties over a wide range.

The socio-economic objective of SoftComp is to provide a fundamental basis for an intelligent engineering of materials and their processing. This is of prime importance for the future of European pharmaceutical, chemical and food industry. More generally all industrial applications of nanophase materials will be implicated. SoftComp specifically aims to develop new knowledge-based materials and to improve existing ones with tailored properties concerning the vital domains of rheological, structural, thermodynamics, elastic and optical behaviour.