Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)

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, data scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, 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; 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 through partnership with other federal and international 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). The program will 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 of materials with desirable properties or functionality. DMREF undertakes 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. This solicitation is open to all materials research topics and reflects the Administration's priorities for strengthening American leadership in technologies and industries of the future that are critical to the nation's health, economic prosperity, national security, and scientific enterprise.