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• Conductive Ti-doped diamond layers produced by an ad-hoc modified HF-CVD. • Ti doping modulates surface topography, chemistry, and potential of diamond. • Surface properties of Ti-diamond allows biocompatibility and bioactivity of cells. • Superior cell proliferation rate on Ti-diamond modifies the cell morphology. This study explores the feasibility to use electroconductive Ti-doped polycrystalline diamond layers as scaffolds for tissue engineering. The synthesis of the diamond–based materials is accomplished in a HFCVD reactor where Ti(IV) acetyl acetonate powders are delivered by N 2 fluxes to the growing diamond phase. In-depth investigations (Raman spectroscopy, SEM, AFM, XRD, XPS) allowed the characterization of the morphological/structural/compositional features and the properties of charge transport (KPFM, I-V) induced in the diamond layers by the incorporation of Ti-species. The bioactivity of the Ti-doped diamond surface was verified investigating the growth of MG-63 osteoblast-like cells by using MTT assays and confocal microscopy. The study evidenced a net increase of cell replication rate on diamond scaffolds after 4 days of incubation. After 6-days incubation, the cell growth on the Ti-doped diamond scaffolds increased up to 150% compared with the reference polystyrene tissue culture vessel, with a dominant presence of cells in active division. The cell behavior is discussed and related to the structural and functional surface properties of the Ti-diamond systems, acting as bioactive platforms able to offer an extremely beneficial environment for cell proliferation and viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]