Introduction: multi-scale modelling of radiation-induced effects in matter Tzveta Apostolova, Jorge Kohanoff, Nikita Medvedev, Eduardo Oliva and Antonio Rivera Eur. Phys. J. D, 76 12 (2022) 231 Published online: 02 December 2022 DOI: 10.1140/epjd/s10053-022-00515-2