Symposium organised by Ghent University, Department of Structural Engineering and Delft University of Technology, Aerospace Structures & Materials. Materials play an extremely important role in our lives. These materials may be of a very different nature ranging from metals over concrete to polymers and composite materials. They all have in common to carry loads, to cope with forces and especially to be durable, because maintenance, repair or replacement may be difficult, costly or in some cases nearly impossible. With a continuous drive for better materials with lower weights that are costing less, materials may be positioned at the edge of their performance. On the contrary when safety and reliability are extremely important factors, materials usually are over-dimensioned for the added safety. All strategies developed over the past 20 centuries to improve the strength and reliability of materials, are ultimately based on the paradigm of “damage prevention”, i.e. the materials are designed in such a way that the damage as a function of load and/or time is postponed as much as possible. The level of damage will here never go down spontaneously. In recent years, however, it has been realized that an alternative strategy can be followed to make materials effectively stronger and more reliable, and that is by “damage management”, i.e. these materials have a built-in capacity to repair the damage incurred during use. When cracks form, the material itself is capable of “self-healing” the crack and restoring the functionality of the material. This approach, inspired by nature, captures the imagination of scientists and laymen alike. Biological systems such as bones, skin or plants have the capacity to detect damage very quickly and have moreover the unique feature to repair the damage efficiently. We would like to translate this concept to our engineering materials. With the series of International Conferences of Self-Healing Materials, we want to offer participants a full overview of the developments in this exciting and rapidly evolving field. The mission of ICSHM is to attract a diverse and multidisciplinary group of scientists and engineers coming from academia, industry and government agencies, managers, and policy makers, from all over the world.