Recently there has been an explosion of interest in non-equilibrium statistical physics ranging from active matter [1] and biophysics [2] to driven classical and quantum systems [3]. The progress which has been made is impressive but has often been isolated in communities dedicated to specific problems and/or to specific techniques, with little cross interaction or even communication between, e.g., the new developments in classical and quantum systems. The idea of this conference is to bring together a wide variety of physicists working on out of equilibrium systems and to enable the sharing of their ideas and to seek out common ground and challenges. Building on the success of the 2019 workshop on “Soft Matter Out of Equilibrium: from driven to active systems" in Beijing, we envision to facilitate this exchange by inviting leading scientists  who  will deliver keynote pedagogical talks on challenges and advances, which could then catalyse more detailed and in depth  exchanges between the participants.