Stimuli-responsive materials have emerged but their industrial applications remain limited. The whole composition of the system is usually specifically formulated to react to environmental conditions although many phenomena locally occur at the surface of the material. This strategy is thus economically non-viable because only few percents of the material volume are exploited for their smart properties. Consequently, industrial renewal can be stimulated by the fabrication of stimuli-responsive coatings that will cover the material, preserving the characteristics of the bulk material and limiting the cost of these additional smart properties while modifying its sensitivity to the surrounding environment. Two challenges appear: i) the development of efficient interfacial dynamic systems, controlled by an external stimulus, and ii) the incorporation of these systems in a ‘universal’ surface modification process. In that context, the INTHERMO project aims at designing smart interfaces with switchable properties, in particular thermo-reversible properties, via a substrate-independent process. These surfaces will react through thermally-reversible Diels-Alder (DA) chemistry. This chemistry is a good candidate to reach such properties since it exhibits dynamic covalent bonding under certain conditions and has also been classified among click chemistry reactions, being efficient and selective. In addition, the elaboration of such surfaces will be assisted by plasma polymerization which enables the fabrication of functional polymer films on a wide variety of substrates (various natures of substrates, including thermo-sensitive materials, various shapes), thus using a universal surface modification process. Grafting of interfacial DA compounds on these reactive coatings will bring the required properties to the polymer film and enable the production of smart interfaces with thermo-reversible properties. The INTHERMO project develops the concept of thermo-reversible covalent bonding on surfaces by i) thoroughly investigating interfacial DA chemistry to elucidate the dependence of the plasma polymer properties on the surface reactivity and ii) developing new DA couples for interfacial thermo-reversible chemistry, reacting under mild conditions (relatively low temperatures for direct and reverse DA reactions, reactions in water). The results of these works will lead to the fabrication of samples illustrating the concept of original interfacial DA chemistry for two precise industrial applications. First, this concept can be applied to reversible covalent adhesion of materials to consider easy replacement of damaged pieces (for instance in composite materials or microelectronics). Covalent assembly of materials at low temperature (via direct DA reaction) and disassembly of elements at a higher temperature, that doesn’t degrade many common materials (via reverse DA reaction), is a great challenge for recyclability of complex system assemblies. Secondly, thermo-reversible DA reaction confined in thin, functional polymer coatings can be used for thermally-controlled immobilization and release of (bio)molecules at/from a substrate. This strategy can find interest for the separation of (bio)molecules from a complex medium while addressing an efficient regeneration of the substrate after use. This 36-month research project, coordinated by a Young Researcher working at the Institute of Materials Science of Mulhouse (IS2M), will target a unique combination of original interfacial DA chemistry, operating under mild conditions, with a substrate-independent process based on plasma polymerization, so that smart interfaces become a reality for specific industrial applications.