Major global challenges are strongly intertwined with advancements in renewable energies, materials, and technology. Engineering novel materials plays a pivotal role in controlling electronic states, enabling the achievement of desired applications, and enhancing the performance of devices crucial for nanoelectronics, quantum science, energy, catalysis, and more. This endeavor also necessitates progress in theoretical models and experimental capabilities to underpin fundamental investigations of material growth, inherent properties, and their interactions with other entities, such as small molecules.

This special issue, titled “Advances in renewable energies, materials, and technology,” underscores the importance of multidisciplinary and multiscale approaches in assessing the impact of novel materials on the behavior and performance of devices. The selection of papers herein represents the scientific content of the 6th Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Materials and Renewable Energies (EMCMRE-6), which took place in Marrakech, Morocco, from June 20 to 23, 2022. These papers illustrate the collaborations established thanks to EMCMRE-6, involving partnerships between materials scientists and researchers from Europe, the USA, and countries bordering the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

EMCMRE-6 received support from the OCP Group, ISMO, Paris-Sud University, University of Central Florida, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, GASUP, Moroccan Society of Sciences for Development, Cadi Ayyad University − Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), and the association STARM for their financial support.

Our team would also like to thank the conference attendees, authors, and referees for their active participation and valuable contributions to this Special Issue. We express our appreciation to the editorial board of the European Physical Journal Applied Physics (EPJ AP) for granting us the opportunity to organize this special issue and for their support throughout this endeavor.

© H. Oughaddou, Published by EDP Sciences, 2023