  The possibility of investigating the dynamics of solids on timescales faster
than the thermalization of the internal degrees of freedom has disclosed novel
non-equilibrium phenomena that have no counterpart at equilibrium. Transition
metal oxides (TMOs) provide an interesting playground in which the correlations
among the charges in the metal $d$-orbitals give rise to a wealth of intriguing
electronic and thermodynamic properties involving the spin, charge, lattice and
orbital orders. Furthermore, the physical properties of TMOs can be engineered
at the atomic level, thus providing the platform to investigate the transport
phenomena on timescales of the order of the intrinsic decoherence time of the
charge excitations.
  Here, we review and discuss three paradigmatic examples of transient emerging
properties that are expected to open new fields of research: i) the creation of
non-thermal magnetic states in spin-orbit Mott insulators; ii) the possible
exploitation of quantum paths for the transport and collection of charge
excitations in TMO-based few-monolayers devices; iii) the transient wave-like
behavior of the temperature field in strongly anisotropic TMOs.
