From 3 to 7 November 2025, the HANAMI project, in collaboration with CECAM, organised the workshop “Materials Science from First Principles: Materials Scientist Toolbox 2025” at Sorbonne Université in Paris, France. This five-day training event brought together researchers from Europe and Japan to explore state-of-the-art methods and high-performance computing (HPC) tools for modelling materials from first principles.

The programme combined theoretical lectures with hands-on practical sessions, covering a wide range of approaches including density functional theory (DFT), quantum Monte Carlo (QMC), and many-body perturbation theory (GW/BSE). Participants received practical training using three key codes developed and supported within the HANAMI community: SIESTA for DFT simulations, TurboRVB for quantum Monte Carlo, and Yambo for excited-state calculations.
Throughout the week, leading European and Japanese experts delivered sessions on topics such as sustainable energy materials, scalable numerical techniques, advanced electronic-structure methods, and quantum nuclear dynamics. Among the contributors were Andrea Ferretti (CNR), Claudio Attaccalite (CNRS), Tomomi Shimazaki (Yokohama City University), Takao Kotani (Tottori University), and Terumasa Tadano (NIMS), who guided participants through cutting-edge modelling strategies and computational workflows.

The workshop also provided an important opportunity for strengthening links between the European and Japanese materials-science communities, supporting HANAMI’s mission to promote long-term collaboration in scientific areas that rely heavily on advanced HPC resources. By equipping early-career researchers and specialists with modern computational tools and fostering exchange across both regions, the event contributed to building a sustainable, interconnected network in materials modelling, which is one of the core scientific pillars of the HANAMI project.

Source: INESC TEC