UK Colloids 2011 – the first multi-day conference on the topic of colloid science held in the UK for many years, jointly organized by the RSC Colloid and Interface Science Group and the SCI Colloid and Surface Science Group. The conference had over 250 delegates, from all across the world – good representation from Japan, China, Australia, USA, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Georgia – as well as a substantial number of UK based researchers. This Special Issue of "Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science" collects together a selection of 20 papers, mostly presented during the Conference. The papers included cover the wide variety of topics from fundamentals in colloid and interface science to industrial applications. The current Special Issue also reflects the international character of the Conference.