A summer school on `Ageing and the glass transition' was held at the University of Luxembourg on 18–24 September 2005. It brought together about 60 scientists actively studying the related fields of physical ageing and of the thermodynamics of glass-forming systems when undergoing a glass transition. The programme of the school can be found on the homepage ( http://www.theorie1.physik.uni-erlangen.de/sommerschule.html). The school contained both invited lectures and contributed talks and posters. This volume presents the works contributed to the summer school, while the invited lectures will be published elsewhere (M Henkel, M Pleimling and R Sanctuary (eds), Ageing and the glass transition, Springer Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer (Heidelberg 2006)). We have tried to encourage the exchange between theorists and experimentalists to which the topics treated in these proceedings bear witness. They range from experimental studies on the mechanical response of glasses, biopolymers, and granular materials to the effects of ageing on the long-time modification of the properties of glass-forming polymers, from simulational and analytical studies of theoretical models describing the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of systems displaying the dynamical scaling typical of ageing phenomena and which are thought to capture essential aspects of glass-forming materials close to a glass transition to more mathematically oriented investigations on the symmetries of these systems.

The `Grande Région' Sar-Lor-Lux is leading European efforts to overcome national and linguistic barriers, with the view of creating a common academic education. Physics has a standing internationalist tradition and the existing trinational integrated course in Physics SLLS (see the homepage http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak7/krueger/integ/sll/d/cursus.htm) is busily developing ways and means towards this goal, in particular through the delivery of multinational and multilingual university degrees in physics, recognized by the partner countries as national degrees. This summer school was a very welcome opportunity for our students to get in contact with leading international activities.

It is a pleasure to thank many individuals for their help, notably J Baller, E Apel, M Heinen-Krumreich and R Wagener. We gratefully acknowledge generous financial support form the Université Franco-Allemande/Deutsch-Französische Hochschule, the University of Luxembourg and the Institute of Physics making the holding of this school possible.