NOVEM stands for Noise and Vibration: Emerging Methods. It is a series of conferences aimed at promoting scientific exchanges of specialists in the related fields. The goal of each conference is to give an account of emerging technologies in selected areas considered to be major scientific challenges in the fields of (i) structural vibration, (ii) vibro-acoustics, (iii) flow-induced noise and vibration and (iv) noise and vibration control. The contributed papers are always devoted to essentials, leaving room for extended discussions. Typically, each day of the conferences focused on an emerging area within a 2-hours long Keynote Forum. Each Forum enabled the selected specialists to expose an up-to-date overview of the relevant area and outline its perspectives. The past conferences were held in several European countries: in 2000 and 2005 in France, Lyon and Saint Raphael, respectively; the 2009 edition was in Oxford, United Kingdom, while the 2012 Sorrento welcomed the delegates in Italy. This year the fifth conference was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The next edition of NOVEM is already scheduled for 2018 in Spain. The NOVEM Committee, to which I belong, is actually formed by: L. Cheng, Hong-Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong; O. Guasch, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain; S. Hambric, Pennsylvania State University, University College, Pennsylvania, USA; J.-G. Ih, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, Korea; I. Lopez Arteaga, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden; B. Mace, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; S. Marburg, Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany; G. Pavic, National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), Lyon, France; J. Renno, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), Southampton, UK; N. Totaro, National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), Lyon, France. For the 2015 Edition, the NOVEM Committee has offered the Journal the ability to publish selected papers. The selection was made in several steps. At the beginning, by looking at the abstracts and the full papers, a number of works were identified, which were potentially of interest to the mechanical engineering field. These papers were pre-selected by the Committee, while the final selection was done following oral presentations. The selected papers were then amended by the authors to comply with the Journal requirements and finally sent to anonymous reviewers. After this further step, 20 papers were initially taken under consideration and at the end of this process, 11 were successful, allowing them to be published in this special issue. The 11 papers, here collected, embrace several topics in the noise and vibration areas: signal processing, design of resonators, uncertainty propagation, variability analysis, deterministic and stochastic responses, instability in friction phenomena and hybrid bearings. They all reflect the major themes of the research fields in mechanical engineering, in terms of both method and design issues always devoted to get the best possible performances. The Committee is convinced that this special issue is a good contribution to the state of the art of these fields in industry as well as in the research centres and university. Final thanks go to the members of NOVEM Committee for allowing me the responsibility to manage and coordinate the work behind this issue, the authors for their valuable work, the reviewers for their anonymous but invaluable support and the Editor-in-Chief, Professor John Chew, for this opportunity.