The Design and Nature conference is to be reconvened in 2016 following the success of all previous meetings, the first of which was held in Udine, in 2002; followed by Rhodes, (2004); the New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute (2006); the Algarve (2008); Pisa (2010); La Coruna (2012); and Opatija (2014).

The conference attracts researchers from all over the world working on a variety of studies involving nature and their significance for modern scientific thought and design.

Learning from nature has given rise to many original insights into how to solve science and engineering problems. More recently the developments of new experimental and computational tools have broadened our understanding of nature and we have been able to interpret better her processes in mathematical terms.

The conference deals with a wide variety of studies, some of them focusing on the fundamentals of natural processes, while others deal with particular applications. Although the topics are diverse, the common threat throughout them is in searching for a harmonisation of humankind activities with nature. The papers develop many interesting insights and theories, most of them transferable between different disciplines.