Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)
Funding Agency:
- National Science Foundation
DMREF seeks to foster the design, discovery, and development of materials to accelerate their path to deployment by harnessing the power of data and computational tools in concert with experiment and theory. DMREF emphasizes a deep integration of experiments, computation, and theory; the use of accessible digital data across the materials development continuum; and strengthening connections among theorists, computational scientists (including data scientists), and experimentalists as well as those from academia, industry, and government. DMREF is committed to the education and training of a next-generation materials research and development (R&D) workforce that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive; well-equipped for successful careers as educators and innovators; and able to take full advantage of the materials development continuum and innovation infrastructures that NSF is creating with partners in other federal agencies.
DMREF is the principal NSF program responsive to the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC's) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). Over its inaugural decade, the MGI has driven a transformational paradigm shift in the philosophy of how materials research is performed. DMREF is supportive of the 2021 MGI Strategic Plan and its three primary goals, i.e., unifying the materials innovation infrastructure; harnessing the power of materials data; and educating, training, and connecting a world-class materials R&D workforce.
DMREF will accordingly support activities that significantly accelerate the materials discovery-to-use timeline by building the fundamental knowledge base needed to advance the design, development, or manufacturability (i.e., properties relevant to manufacturing, process-property relationships, property performance metrics, potential pathways for scale-up, economic feasibility, supply chain considerations, or life cycle issues) of materials with desirable properties or functionality. The 2021 MGI Strategic Plan re-envisioned the linear Materials Development Continuum described in the original Strategic Plan to promote integration and iteration of knowledge across the entire path to deployment. DMREF will undertake this challenge through building a vibrant research community, forming interdisciplinary teams to conduct research in a "closed-loop" fashion, leveraging data science and machine learning, providing ready access to materials data, and educating the future MGI workforce.
Standard Grant or Continuing Grant
$45,000,000
February 27, 2023 - March 13, 2023
- John Schlueter, Team Lead, MPS/DMR, telephone: (703) 292-7766, email: jschluet@nsf.gov
- Mohsen Asle Zaeem, MPS/DMR, telephone: (703) 292-4562, email: mzaeem@nsf.gov
- Marian Bocea, MPS/DMS, telephone: (703) 292-2595, email: mbocea@nsf.gov