Membrane technology has been implemented in many fields as energy-saving and sustainable process. Water in great part of the world is provided by seawater desalination using reverse osmosis membrane plants. Other applications such as the industrial recovery of valuable products or water treatment in harsh environments, challenging separations of solutes with similar size could be successfully promoted if better membrane materials would be available. This symposium will be dedicated to material developments in this field, covering new polymers and copolymers, multilayer coatings, organic-inorganic composites, surface functionalization, morphology control in porous materials for membranes. The open challenges in the field will be discussed, identifying new directions and needs for material development.