The new academic year brings a new cohort of postgraduate researchers. We welcome our new first years to the Centre of Doctoral Training at the University of Exeter. They are a bright, ambitious and energetic group of young researchers from Germany, Greece, Ireland, the UK and Russia. We look forward to supporting their progress and to seeing them rise to the challenges that will undoubtely come their way. The new cohort is part of an amazing academic community of 64 PGRs and 35 internal supervisors, plus their academic and industrial collaborators: a strong foundation for excellence in Metamaterials research at Exeter.