Functional materials or commonly defined as materials with a specific property and function hold an important position in the science and technology development, including alternative energy supply, environment preservation, and health quality improvement. Many institutions in Indonesia are focusing in material science development, either involving natural substance or chemically/physically synthesized products. In fact, in Universitas Indonesia, aside from Magister Program of Material Science, Departments of Physics, Chemistry and Biology -which somehow study the development and applications of functional materials- are also available.

However, at the present time, it is rather difficult to find a compatible discussion partners for this issue, not to mention difficulties in developing the research for application purposes. In this case, a medium, which provides proper communication tools amongst the researchers or between the researchers and industrial community, as the end users, is certainly required.

This symposium provides a network for all the functional material researchers to communicate with each other. The establishment of this network will broaden the concept of the subject and is expected to improve the research quality in Indonesia and to increase publication numbers as well as its applications in technology and industry, particularly for alternative energy supply, environment preservation, and health quality improvement.