In 2006 the Dutch government funded an 8 year and 20 million euro research program on Self Healing Materials. The research was not to be restricted to one material class or one particular healing approach. It was to explore all opportunities to create self healing behavior in engineering and functional materials and to bring the new materials to a level where they could be tested in real life applications. At its launch, the IOP program Innovatiegericht Onderzoeksprogramma was the very first integrated multi-material approach to this field in the world. The research was to be conducted at Dutch universities working in