This issue brings a selection of papers presented at the Symposium entitled Sol–gel Route to Prepare New Inorganic, Hybrid and Multifunctional Materials, which was one of the 16 dedicated Symposia at the 2011 Brazilian Materials Research Society meeting (X SBPMat), held in Gramado, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil from September 25 to 29, 2011. This meeting congregated about 1,400 participants from Brazil and abroad and had more than 1,850 accepted abstracts. Our Symposium had 6 invited talks, 19 oral presentations, 133 poster presentations and one plenary lecturer. We had the opportunity to bring together the academic scientists mainly from Brazil, who work in this multidisciplinary area of research. The stimulating exchange of scientific information and collaborations were beyond our expectations and the selected papers in this issue demonstrate the high scientific level of the symposium.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee we would like to thank those who attended the Symposium, the SBPMat for their support and those who helped its organization. Finally, we wish to thank the Journal of Sol–Gel Science and Technology for their support to publish these selected papers.