Book excerpt: This proceedings volume reviews the recent developments of superconducting materials for practical applications and critical current characteristics. It contains 18 invited papers and 72 contributed papers. The scope of these papers includes: (1) synthesis and processing of practical materials, (2) properties of high-Tc tapes, coils and bulk materials, (3) critical currents and microstructure, (4) flux dynamics and pinning mechanisms, (5) applications of high-Tc materials, (6) applications of low-Tc superconductors, (7) processing, physical properties and applications of high-Tc thin films.