Dear Colleagues,
It gives us great pleasure to invite you to the 12th European Conference on Residual Stresses - ECRS12, which will take place in Bremen, Germany, from 7–10 September 2027.

ECRS is a well-established conference series dedicated to residual stresses in structural and functional materials. Since its first edition in Karlsruhe (1983), the conference has become a key international forum for scientists, PhD students, engineers, and industrial practitioners working on the prediction, measurement, modelling, control, and application of residual stresses. Previous editions have been successfully held in Darmstadt (1990), Frankfurt/Main (1992), Cluny (1996), Delft (1999), Coimbra (2002), Berlin (2006), Riva del Garda (2010), Troyes (2014), Leuven (2018), and most recently in Prague (2024).

Following the great success of ECRS11 in Prague (2024), which brought together an active and international community for inspiring scientific exchange, ECRS12 will continue this tradition and provide a lively platform for presenting the latest developments in residual stress science and engineering.

Residual stresses strongly influence the physical, mechanical, and functional properties of materials and components. Their understanding and control are essential for improving fatigue life, structural reliability, dimensional stability, and performance in demanding applications. While the field is rooted in materials science and mechanical engineering, it also connects to solid-state physics, manufacturing science, chemical reactivity of solids, geology, life sciences, and advanced characterization methods.

The conference will address residual stresses from both fundamental and applied perspectives, with equal emphasis on experimental characterization, theoretical understanding, numerical modelling, and industrial application. Topics will include, but are not limited to, residual stress measurement techniques, diffraction-based methods, synchrotron and neutron approaches, mechanical methods, simulation and prediction of residual stress fields, stress development during manufacturing, additive manufacturing, surface treatments, fatigue and fracture, distortion, damage initiation and propagation, component performance, lifetime assessment, and multiscale approaches from nanoscale systems to large engineering structures. In addition, ECRS12 will welcome contributions on emerging data-driven and artificial intelligence methods, including machine learning for residual stress prediction, automated evaluation of experimental data, uncertainty quantification, inverse modelling, process optimization, and digital twins for residual stress engineering.

Bremen will provide an excellent setting for the next edition of ECRS. As a city with a strong tradition in science, engineering, aerospace, and advanced technologies, Bremen offers an inspiring environment for scientific exchange. In addition to a high-quality technical program, ECRS12 will feature social events and numerous opportunities for networking, enabling participants to establish new collaborations, strengthen existing partnerships, and engage with colleagues from academia and industry in a welcoming atmosphere.

We warmly invite you to join us in Bremen for ECRS12 to share your latest results, discuss current challenges, explore emerging methods and applications, and contribute to the future of residual stress research and engineering.

We look forward to welcoming you to Bremen in September 2027.

Sincerely,
Jérémy Epp and Jens Gibmeier, Chairmen of ECRS12