The 1st International Conference on the Material Point Method for “Modelling Large Deformation and Soil–Water–Structure Interaction” (MPM2017) was held in Delft, The Netherlands on 10–13 January 2017. This is the first conference organised by the Anura3D MPM Research Community, following a series of international workshops and symposia previously held in The Netherlands, UK, Spain and Italy, as part of the European Commission FP7 Marie–Curie project MPM–DREDGE. We are delighted to present seven contributions in this Special Column of the Journal of Hydrodynamics, and take this opportunity to announce that the 2nd conference, MPM2019, will be held in Cambridge, UK in January 2019.