Accessing materials physics on the smallest dimensions of time is of fundamental importance, since the natural events in the microscopic quantum world of solids typically proceed on ultrashort (femtosecond or picosecond) time scales, being this the time scale of fundamental quantum excitations and collective interactions in solids. Ultrashort light pulses can therefore act as a tool to unravel the intrinsic forces that drive correlated ground states, as well as to generate novel phases that have no equivalent in thermal equilibrium. Our goal is to exploits advanced ways in which ultrashort and intense light pulses can be used to create, manipulate and eventually control new quasiparticle distributions and topologies in materials; and how we can tailored vibrational and electronic excitations to influence fundamental interactions and create new emergent collective states.