Slots: 5
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, December 13th, 2024, 5pm PT
LOI: Not required.
External Deadline: February 4, 2025
Award Information
Award Type: Collaborative Project
Estimated Number of Awards: 20-25
Anticipated Award Amount: $1,500,000 – $2,000,000
Who May Serve as PI: By the submission deadline, any PI, co-PI, or other Senior/Key project personnel must hold either:
- A tenured or tenure-track position, or
- A primary, full-time, paid appointment in a research or teaching position with exceptions granted for family or medical leave, as determined by the submitting institution.
An investigator who is a PI or co-PI of a DMREF award based on a proposal submitted in response to the previous DMREF Solicitation (NSF 23-530) cannot be a PI or co-PI for this DMREF solicitation, but may serve as Senior/Key Personnel. Proposals violating this limitation will be returned without review.
Link to Award: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/dmref-designing-materials-revolutionize-engineer-our-future/nsf25-508/solicitation
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
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). 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 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.
This solicitation is open to all materials research topics and is responsive to the recent National Academies 2023 Report ‘NSF Efforts to Achieve the Nation’s Vision for the Materials Genome Initiative’. DMREF 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.
DMREF encourages input and participation from the full spectrum of diverse talent that society has to offer which includes underrepresented and underserved communities. Aligning with Goal 3 of the 2021 MGI Strategic Plan, DMREF promotes education, training, and workforce development that can communicate across all components of the materials development continuum.
Proposals submitted to this solicitation must be directed by a team of at least two Senior/Key Personnel with complementary expertise. The proposed research must involve a collaborative and iterative “closed-loop” process wherein theory guides computational simulation, computational simulation guides experiments, and experimental observation further guides theory.
This solicitation represents a crosscutting activity involving the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), Engineering (ENG), Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), and Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). Additionally, partnership with other federal agencies may lead to an interagency effort. Submitted proposals may be shared with one or more federal partners in the solicitation: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), and the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Opportunities are also present for collaboration with the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Germany’s Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Awards are expected to range from $1,500,000 – $2,000,000 over a duration of four years.
Subject to the availability of funds, it is anticipated that the DMREF program will continue with competitions biennially in odd-numbered years.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.