 i 

Materials Genome Initiative

National Science and Technology Council

Committee on Technology

Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative

DECEMBER 2014
 ii 

About the National Science and Technology Council

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is the principal means by which the Executive Branch 

coordinates science and technology policy across the diverse entities that make up the Federal research 

and development enterprise. A primary objective of the NSTC is establishing clear national goals for 

Federal science and technology investments. The NSTC prepares research and development strategies 

that are coordinated across Federal agencies to form investment packages aimed at accomplishing 

multiple national goals. The NSTC’s work is organized under five committees: (1) Environment, Natural 

Resources, and Sustainability; (2) Homeland and National Security; (3) Science, Technology, Engineering, 

and Math (STEM) Education; (4) Science; and (5) Technology. Each of these committees oversees 

subcommittees and working groups focused on different aspects of science and technology. More 

information is available at www.WhiteHouse.gov/ostp/nstc.

About the Office of Science and Technology Policy

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was established by the National Science and 

Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976. OSTP’s responsibilities include advising the 

President in policy formulation and budget development on questions in which science and technology 

are important elements; articulating the President’s science and technology policy and programs; and 

fostering strong partnerships among Federal, state, and local governments and the scientific communities 

in industry and academia. The Director of OSTP also serves as Assistant to the President for Science and 

Technology and manages the NSTC. More information is available at www.WhiteHouse.gov/ostp.

About the Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative

The Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) contributes to the activities of NSTC’s 

Committee on Technology (CoT). SMGI’s purpose is to advise and assist the NSTC and OSTP on policies, 

procedures, and plans related to the goals of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). As such, and to the 

extent permitted by law, the SMGI defines and coordinates Federal efforts in support of the goals of MGI 

and identifies policies that will accelerate deployment of advanced materials. SMGI also tracks national 

priority needs that would benefit from MGI, identifies extramural activities that connect to MGI goals, and 

explores ways the Federal Government can advance the development of the Materials Innovation 

Infrastructure.

Copyright Information

This document is a work of the United States Government and is in the public domain (see 17 U.S.C. 

§105). Subject to the stipulations below, it may be distributed and copied with acknowledgment to 

OSTP. Copyrights to graphics included in this document are reserved by the original copyright holders or 

their assignees and are used here under the government’s license and by permission. Requests to use 

any images must be made to the provider identified in the image credits or to OSTP if no provider is 

identified.

Printed in the United States of America, 2014.
 i 

Materials Genome Initiative

National Science and Technology Council

Committee on Technology

Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative

DECEMBER 2014
 ii 

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20502

December 4, 2014

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to transmit to you the 2014 Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) Strategic Plan. MGI 

is an effort to double the pace of advanced-materials discovery, innovation, manufacture, and 

commercialization. It is part of a broader set of concrete actions launched by President Obama 

in 2011 to revitalize American manufacturing and the Initiative has made tremendous progress 

in its first three years. This Strategic Plan will serve as a framework for Federal agencies as they 

work to execute on the goals of MGI. The Strategic Plan highlights four sets of goals of the MGI:

(1) Leading a culture shift in materials-science research to encourage and facilitate an 

integrated team approach;

(2) Integrating experiment, computation, and theory and equipping the materials community 

with advanced tools and techniques;

(3) Making digital data accessible; and

(4) Creating a world-class materials-science and engineering workforce that is trained for 

careers in academia or industry.

This Strategic Plan was prepared by the Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) 

of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technology. The Subcommittee

received and incorporated substantial input from a diverse array of stakeholders across the 

materials-science and engineering research and development community, including feedback 

gathered from thought leaders convened at multiple workshops in 2012-2013 and public 

comments received on the draft Strategic Plan earlier this year.

Achieving the MGI’s vision of more rapid discovery and deployment of advanced materials will 

help ensure America’s sustained leadership across the many sectors that utilize these 

technologies, including energy, electronics, national defense, and health care. I thank the SMGI

for its hard work in developing this Strategic Plan and look forward to continued progress toward 

keeping our Nation on the cutting-edge of innovation in the advanced-materials domain.

Sincerely,

John P. Holdren

Assistant to the President for Science and Technology

Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
 iii 

NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL

COMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE MATERIALS GENOME INITIATIVE

National Science and Technology Council

Chair Staff 

John P. Holdren Jayne Morrow

Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Executive Director

Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy 

Committee on Technology

Chair Staff

Thomas Kalil Randy Paris

Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation Executive Secretary

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative

Co-Chairs

Cyrus Wadia Harriet Kung (through Sept. 24, 2013)

Assistant Director, Clean Energy and Materials R&D Associate Director of Science for

Office of Science and Technology Policy Basic Energy Sciences

Department of Energy

Laurie Locascio Linda Horton (beginning Sept. 24, 2013)

Director, Material Measurement Laboratory Director, Materials Sciences and 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Engineering Division 

Department of Commerce Office of Basic Energy Sciences

Department of Energy

Executive Secretary

James Warren

Technical Program Director for Materials Genomics

Material Measurement Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Department of Commerce

Strategic Plan Development and Writing Team

Meredith Drosback Office of Science and Technology Policy, Writing Lead

Julie Christodoulou Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense

Mary Galvin National Science Foundation

David Hardy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 

 Department of Energy

Linda Horton Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Department of Energy

William Joost Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 

 Department of Energy

Harriet Kung Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Department of Energy

Laurie Locascio National Institute of Standards and Technology, 

 Department of Commerce

Bryan Morreale Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, 

 Department of Energy

Harry Partridge National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Charles Ward Air Force Research Laboratory, Department of Defense

James Warren National Institute of Standards and Technology,

 Department of Commerce
 iv 

Executive Summary

Vision: Advanced materials are essential to economic security and human well-being and have 

applications in multiple industries, including those aimed at addressing challenges in clean energy, 

national security, and human welfare. To meet these challenges, the Materials Genome Initiative will 

enable discovery, development, manufacturing, and deployment of advanced materials at least twice 

as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost.

In June 2011, President Barack Obama launched the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) alongside the 

Advanced Manufacturing Partnership to help businesses discover, develop, and deploy new materials 

twice as fast. For many years, the United States has been a dominant player in the discovery of 

transformative materials that are the basis of entirely new products and industries, yet the time lag 

between discovery of advanced materials and their use in commercial products can be 20 years or more. 

MGI will help position the United States for sustained leadership across the many sectors that utilize 

advanced materials from energy to electronics and defense to health care. MGI aims to capitalize on 

recent breakthroughs in materials modeling, theory, and data mining to significantly accelerate discovery 

and deployment of advanced materials while decreasing their cost. At the heart of MGI is the Materials 

Innovation Infrastructure, a framework of seamlessly integrated advanced modeling, data, and 

experimental tools that will be used to attain the MGI vision. Going beyond tools and techniques, MGI 

aims to link together networks of scientists spanning academia, National and Federal laboratories, and 

industry to more effectively share the information that underpins new material discovery and product 

development, and enables technological leaps.

Achieving this vision requires successfully addressing four key challenges: 

(1) Leading a culture shift in materials research to encourage and facilitate an integrated team 

approach that links computation, data, and experiment and crosses boundaries between 

academia, National and Federal laboratories, and industry;

(2) Integrating experiment, computation, and theory and equipping the materials community with 

the advanced tools and techniques to work across materials classes and along the materials 

development continuum from research to industrial application; 

(3) Making digital data accessible including combining data from experiment and computation into a 

searchable materials data infrastructure and encouraging researchers to make their data available 

to others; 

(4) Creating a world-class materials workforce that is trained for careers in academia or industry, 

including high-tech manufacturing jobs.
 v 

The Federal agencies participating in MGI developed this document to outline the near-term steps the 

Federal government will take to achieve the vision put forth by MGI. The plan also describes the scientific 

and technical challenges identified by experts from the academic and industrial materials science and 

engineering communities that impede progress in nine materials classes and application domains that 

MGI can help address. The tools and scientific cultural evolution emerging from MGI can be directly 

applied to overcoming these grand challenges, and others that will emerge in the future, to meet the 

President’s directive for more rapid discovery and deployment of advanced materials. Achieving these

goals will be crucial to competitiveness in the 21st century and will help ensure that the United States

maintains global leadership in innovation of emerging materials technologies in a wide range of industrial 

sectors including health, defense, and energy.
 vi 

Table of Contents

Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................... iv

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................1

Key Challenges..............................................................................................................................................5

A Culture Shift in Materials Research, Development, and Deployment...................................................5

Integration of Experiments, Computation, and Theory............................................................................5

Access to Digital Data................................................................................................................................5

A Well-Equipped Workforce .....................................................................................................................6

Strategic Goals and Objectives .....................................................................................................................7

Goal 1: Enable a Paradigm Shift in Culture ..............................................................................................7

Objective 1.1: Encourage and Facilitate Integrated R&D ....................................................................8

Objective 1.2: Facilitate Adoption of the MGI Approach...................................................................10

Objective 1.3: Engage with the International Community ................................................................11

Goal 2: Integrate Experiments, Computation, and Theory....................................................................11

Objective 2.1: Create a MGI Network of Resources ..........................................................................11

Objective 2.2: Enable Creation of Accurate, Reliable Simulations.....................................................13

Objective 2.3: Improve Experimental Tools—From Materials Discovery through Deployment.......15

Objective 2.4: Develop Data Analytics to Enhance the Value of Experimental and Computational 

Data.....................................................................................................................................................18

Goal 3: Facilitate Access to Materials Data............................................................................................20

Objective 3.1: Identify Best Practices for Implementation of a Materials Data Infrastructure.........20

Objective 3.2: Support Creation of Accessible Materials Data Repositories.....................................22

Goal 4: Equip the Next-Generation Materials Workforce .....................................................................23

Objective 4.1: Pursue New Curriculum Development and Implementation .....................................23

Objective 4.2: Provide Opportunities for Integrated Research Experiences.....................................25

Achieving National Objectives....................................................................................................................27

National Security.....................................................................................................................................27

Human Health and Welfare ....................................................................................................................28

Clean Energy Systems.............................................................................................................................29

Infrastructure and Consumer Goods......................................................................................................30
 vii 

Science and Technology Grand Challenges.................................................................................................32

Biomaterials............................................................................................................................................33

Catalysts..................................................................................................................................................34

Polymer Composites...............................................................................................................................35

Correlated Materials...............................................................................................................................36

Electronic and Photonic Materials..........................................................................................................36

Energy Storage Systems..........................................................................................................................37

Lightweight and Structural Materials .....................................................................................................38

Organic Electronic Materials...................................................................................................................38

Polymers .................................................................................................................................................39

Concluding Remarks....................................................................................................................................41

Appendix A: Agency Interests and Emphasis Areas...................................................................................42

Department of Defense ..........................................................................................................................42

Department of Energy ............................................................................................................................43

National Aeronautics and Space Administration....................................................................................45

National Institute of Standards and Technology ....................................................................................46

National Institutes of Health...................................................................................................................47

National Science Foundation ..................................................................................................................47

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior...............................................................................48

Appendix B: Related Federal Activities......................................................................................................50

Manufacturing ........................................................................................................................................50

Open Access............................................................................................................................................50

Other Federal Initiatives.........................................................................................................................51

Interagency Coordination .......................................................................................................................51

Executive Office of the President............................................................................................................52

Appendix C: Acronyms and Abbreviations.................................................................................................53

Appendix D: Summary of Public Comment................................................................................................55

Appendix D: Summary of Public Comment.........................................................................................................55

Figures and Table

Figure 1: The Materials Development Continuum.......................................................................................2

Figure 2: The Materials Innovation Infrastructure.......................................................................................3
 viii 

Table 1: Materials Classes Included in Grand Challenge Summits and Their Relationship 

 to National Needs.........................................................................................................................33
 1 

Introduction

Materials matter. The efficiencies of high-temperature turbine engines, biocompatibility of replacement 

joints and implants, operational life of advanced batteries, and sophisticated electronics that enable our 

digital world are all determined by the materials selected and optimized for the application. These 

innovations and myriad others shape the world we know and enable the future we envision. Yet 

transitioning a new material from initial discovery to practical use frequently takes 20 years or more.

The Nation’s economic competitiveness and prosperity in the coming decades will depend critically upon 

the pace of American innovation. Recognizing the importance of advanced materials in supporting an 

innovation-driven U.S. manufacturing sector, President Barack Obama introduced the Materials Genome 

Initiative (MGI) in June 2011 with this aim: discover, develop, manufacture, and deploy advanced 

materials twice as fast, at a fraction of the cost.

This ambitious goal is within reach. Research conducted in the early 2000s demonstrated that a systemslevel approach to material design, optimization, and implementation could significantly reduce design 

time and cost while improving quality. Some of these successes were chronicled in the 2008 National 

Research Council study Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME): A Transformative 

Discipline for Improved Competitiveness and National Security.

1

 One early example is the collaborative 

work of two aerospace engine design companies under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

(DARPA) Accelerated Insertion of Materials program. New principles of concurrently optimizing both 

design and manufacturing process enabled a new rotor disk design that had a 21% reduction in weight 

and 19% increase in burst strength, all achieved in nearly half the time of a typical development cycle. 

Another early success story from 2007 was a new diesel engine rapidly brought to market through the use 

of modeling and analysis tools. This simulation-driven approach reduced development time and cost by 

decreasing the reliance on expensive and time-intensive hardware testing and by minimizing costly 

redesigns; it improved engine performance by allowing engineers to consider a broad range of design 

alternatives computationally, without the investment in hardware.

2,3

 The work took advantage of 

foundational combustion modeling and laser diagnostics from the Department of Energy’s Combustion 

Research Facility and this coupling of powerful computation with advanced characterization tools reflects 

an early example of the promise of MGI. 

 

1 National Research Council, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering: A Transformational Discipline for Improved 

Competitiveness and National Security, (2008) Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. (available online at 

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12199).

2 Computational Materials Science and Chemistry: Accelerating Discovery and Innovation through Simulation-Based Engineering 

and Science, Report of the Department of Energy workshop; July 26-27, 2010. (available online at 

http://science.energy.gov/~/media/ascr/pdf/program-documents/docs/Cmsc_rpt.pdf).

3 Tickel, B., Getting it Right the First Time, ANSYS Advantage, 1, 3, 10 (2007). (available online at 

http://www.ansys.com/staticassets/ANSYS/staticassets/resourcelibrary/article/AA-V1-I3-Getting-It-Right-the-First-Time.pdf).
 2 

Innovative experimental tools also have a critical role in accelerating materials discovery and deployment. 

High-throughput experimental techniques have been deployed successfully in the field of pharmaceutical 

research to compress time to market for new drug therapies. In one comparison, combinatorial 

approaches were found to generate 1000 times more compounds with potential medicinal value than 

traditional methods for at least 600 times less cost per compound.4 Over time, combinatorial techniques 

have expanded to other fields (e.g., catalysis, thermoelectric materials, and alloy design) and include both 

combinatorial synthesis and characterization, enabling rapid assessment and analysis.

Figure 1. Materials Development Continuum

The successes and lessons learned from this early work illustrate the capabilities of different approaches 

as well as the potential for dramatic changes in workflow across all stages in the materials development 

continuum (see Figure 1) to accelerate materials to market and contribute to the design and goals of 

MGI.5,6 The 2011 MGI white paper, Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness, described a 

Materials Innovation Infrastructure encompassing advanced computational, experimental, and data 

informatics tools (see Figure 2), along with a collaborative, integrated research paradigm for materials 

science and engineering.

7,8

 The “MGI approach” seeks to uniquely and seamlessly integrate computation, 

experiment, and data to fuel the successful discovery of new materials and their more rapid deployment 

and incorporation into manufactured products. 

Although MGI itself is a bold initiative, it is also inherently linked to other Administration priorities and 

Federal activities focused on addressing some of the Nation’s most pressing needs in areas such as clean 

energy, national security, and human health and welfare, all of which have underlying challenges whose 

solutions require advanced materials. The President demonstrated the connection between MGI and

other major Federal efforts intended to renew and revitalize U.S. manufacturing by launching MGI

alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a collaboration across government, industry, 

and academia to identify the most pressing challenges and transformative opportunities for improving 

technologies, processes, and products across multiple manufacturing industries. Additionally, MGI has a 

 

4 Persidis, A. “Combinatorial chemistry” Nature Biotechnology 18 (2000) IT50-52 (available online at 

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v18/n10s/full/nbt1000_IT50.html).

5

Ibid. 1.

6 National Science Foundation, Inventing a New America through Discovery and Innovation in Science, Engineering, and 

Medicine: A Vision for Research and Development in Simulation-Based Engineering and Science in the Next Decade, (2010)

(available online at http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ResearchDirectionsWorkshop2010/RWD-color-FINAL-usletter_2010-07-16.pdf).

7 National Science and Technology Council, Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness, (2011) (available online at 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/materials_genome_initiative-final.pdf).

8 Throughout this document, the phrases “materials science and engineering” and “materials community” are meant to 

encompass a diverse range of disciplines relevant to the discovery, development, and deployment of advanced materials, 

including physics, chemistry, engineering design, an array of engineering disciplines, and manufacturing.

Discovery

Development Property

Optimization

Systems

Design and

Integration

Certification Manufacturing

1 2 3 4 5 6

Deployment*

* Includes Sustainment and Recovery

7
 3 

clear directive to provide an infrastructure for data sharing and access, a task in direct support of the 2013 

Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum on open data access for federally funded scientific 

research.9 Further, MGI is closely linked to the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) as materials 

scientists and engineers harness the advances in the understanding and control of material at the 

nanoscale made over the last decade due to NNI. When combined with these other initiatives and 

priorities, MGI has the potential to support the next wave of U.S. manufacturing and foster the kinds of 

cross-sector and cross-disciplinary collaborations that will open brand new avenues for innovation in 

efficiently solving national challenges.

Figure 2. The Materials Innovation Infrastructure

MGI issues a unique challenge to the entire materials community: Deliver the next generation of materials 

into products in half the time at a fraction of the cost. This approach could lead to the accelerated 

discovery of new materials not yet possible with conventional tools, more rapid insertion of known 

materials into new products, and development of new technologies only imagined today (e.g., strong and 

dynamic-impact damping materials for military vehicles, helmets, and personnel armor; an ultralightweight material for cars that easily withstands high-impact crashes; or a thin-film battery material for 

cell phones that remain charged for weeks). The strategy described in this document (developed by 

Federal agencies with input from critical stakeholders from academia, National and Federal laboratories, 

and industry) is intended to guide and coordinate Federal activities and provide a clear technical path for 

carrying out the President’s vision.

 

9 Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies from John P. Holdren, Director of the Office of Science 

and Technology Policy, on Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (available online at 

www.WhiteHouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf).
 4 

The next two chapters outline four strategic challenges to achieving the vision outlined by MGI, followed 

by a series of goals and objectives for successfully addressing these challenges. A subsequent chapter on 

achieving national objectives discusses how MGI can be leveraged to ensure that national needs are met 

in security, human health and welfare, clean energy, and infrastructure and consumer goods. Finally, a 

series of science and technology challenges from across the materials class and application spectrum are 

discussed. The tools and scientific cultural evolution that will develop as part of MGI can be directly 

applied to overcoming these challenges and others yet unidentified to meet the President’s directive for 

more rapid discovery and deployment of advanced materials.
 5 

Key Challenges

Four key challenges have been identified as barriers between the current materials science and 

engineering paradigm and the future as envisioned by the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). Summarized 

below, these challenges are: (1) a culture shift in materials research, development, and deployment; 

(2) integration of experiments, computation, and theory; (3) access to digital data; and (4) a well-equipped 

workforce. The goals and objectives outlined in the next chapter are designed to address each of these

challenges through concerted efforts of public- and private-sector MGI stakeholders.

A Culture Shift in Materials Research, Development, and Deployment

Deeper integration of experiment, computation, and theory, as well as the routine use of accessible digital 

materials data, represents a shift in the usual way research is conducted in materials science and 

engineering. A major challenge facing MGI is how to establish mechanisms that will facilitate a flow of 

knowledge across the materials development continuum through deeper collaborations not only between 

theorists and experimentalists, but among academia, National and Federal laboratories, and industry as 

well.

Integration of Experiments, Computation, and Theory

A key characteristic that defines efforts in support of MGI is an integrated, collaborative workflow that 

draws simultaneously from experiments, computation, and theory. The vast spans of length and 

timescales covered by materials research create unique challenges for delivering quantitative and 

predictive scientific and engineering tools.

10

 Important components of the Materials Innovation 

Infrastructure will be the development of advanced simulation tools that are validated through 

experimental data, networks to share useful modeling and analysis code, and access to quantitative 

synthesis11 and characterization tools.

Access to Digital Data

Creating a digital data infrastructure that not only stores a wide range of data but is easily and reliably 

searchable is a challenge faced by many scientific disciplines, including materials science and engineering. 

Challenges facing the materials community across all technology readiness levels12 include making users 

aware of the tools and data available; defining and implementing a widely accepted governance structure; 

 

10 Length scales can span from the size of atoms to physical structures common to everyday life, such as circuit boards, 

automobiles, and buildings; temporal scales can range from the fractions of a second characteristic of atomic interactions to the 

decades- or centuries-long lifetime of a manufactured object. 

11 Throughout this document, “synthesis” of a material is meant to include techniques using chemical reactions as well as 

techniques often referred to as fabrication, processing, or manufacture of materials.

12 For examples and definitions of technology readiness levels see documentation from NASA: 

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/trl/trl.pdf or DOD: 

http://www.acq.osd.mil/chieftechnologist/publications/docs/TRA2011.pdf.
 6 

balancing security requirements with data usability and discoverability; and generating standards for 

describing data and assessing data quality. Meeting the vision of MGI will require broad and open access 

to validated data and tools generated by the materials community across the materials development 

continuum to allow both the reuse of individual data sets and the application of data analytics techniques 

to examine the aggregation of large volumes of data from many disparate sources.

A Well-Equipped Workforce

Even with development of a broadly accessible data infrastructure and new tools integrating experiment, 

computation, theory, and data, the next generation of scientists and engineers engaged in materials 

discovery, development, and deployment must be able to expertly use these tools to achieve the success 

promised by MGI. This challenge will be met in part through formal education in the application of this 

integrated approach for undergraduate and graduate students who will pursue careers in industry, 

National and Federal laboratories, and academia. For professionals already in the workplace, additional 

training may enable the widespread use of new tools and research methods. Also, before the future 

generation workforce can be equipped to take advantage of the Materials Innovation Infrastructure, 

instructors must first be provided information on these new tools, research approaches, and their value.
 7 

Strategic Goals and Objectives

The success of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) will be achieved by meeting the following four goals:

1. Enable a Paradigm Shift in Culture 

2. Integrate Experiments, Computation, and Theory

3. Facilitate Access to Materials Data

4. Equip the Next-Generation Materials Workforce

This chapter expands on the substance of each of these goals and details specific objectives and 

milestones that will move MGI toward its aim of accelerating the development of new materials to meet 

national needs. Throughout this section, each milestone will include a list of agencies or interagency 

groups taking a lead role in executing the task.

In developing and executing the MGI activities described here, evaluation techniques and approaches will 

also be developed that allow assessment of both program efficacy and impacts. The details of the 

evaluation components of MGI remain undefined to date, but should include gathering sufficient project 

data to document what works well, the scientific output, and measures of increased pace and 

commercialization of materials innovation attributable to MGI.

Goal 1: Enable a Paradigm Shift in Culture 

To achieve the vision of decreasing the time and cost of the materials discovery to deployment process, 

MGI must drive a shift in the way the community conducts research and development (R&D) and the 

commercial activities that produce and use materials. Fundamentally, this paradigm shift requires a 

change in the way teams collaborate. Collaboration today is widespread and productive, yet often

narrowly confined to teams of scientists with similar expertise in theory, experiment, or simulation. 

Collaboration can become more fruitful through the seamless integration of theory; materials 

characterization, synthesis, and processing; and computational modeling. Further, advances in 

fundamental scientific knowledge and tools must be transitioned and integrated into engineering practice

and application. This multidisciplinary approach will accelerate progress as results from each aspect 

inform the work of the others, enhancing communication across disciplines, avoiding delays and missteps,

and enabling optimization.

This change requires engaging the entire materials community, from discovery through deployment,

across the many engineering and scientific disciplines, academic departments, and industries that 

participate in activities related to materials. In addition, such a paradigm shift encompasses the 

development of this new collaboration model integrating theory, modeling, and experiment throughout 

the entire R&D continuum, from fundamental research through the design, optimization, and 

manufacturing phases. Therefore, industry plays a particularly important role in the strategy to form and 

adopt this new paradigm.
 8 

Objective 1.1: Encourage and Facilitate Integrated R&D 

Integration across many domains is a cornerstone of the culture and techniques developed under MGI. 

Connections among theory, computation, and experiment; academia, National and Federal laboratories, 

and industry; science and engineering disciplines; and even Federal agencies are all critical to achieving 

the vision and demonstrating the value of the MGI approach. Successfully integrated research programs 

need strong multidisciplinary teams that span materials research activities. Communication within and 

among teams and across material and application domains is also a key component.

Attempts to demonstrate the value of this new collaborative, iterative structure have already begun. For 

example, the National Science Foundation’s MGI program, Designing Materials to Revolutionize and 

Engineer our Future (DMREF), emphasizes integration of computation and experiment in an iterative 

manner and encourages proposal evaluation on the basis of this collaborative research mechanism. This 

program and similar efforts ongoing at other Federal agencies have produced a small, but growing cohort 

of researchers that are using the iterative, collaborative MGI paradigm within their own research groups 

and with extended research partners. The Federal Government can support further transition to a 

research culture that includes integration across disciplines, as well as between the academic and 

industrial R&D communities, by emphasizing targeted support for this kind of work and bringing MGI 

elements into existing materials science and engineering R&D programs as appropriate. In fiscal year 2014 

NSF added a third class of DMREF awardees to the existing group of scientists already supported by NSF, 

Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Defense (DOD) MGI awards; each year more scientists

become actively engaged in MGI-related projects and continuing to increase this number will facilitate 

more widespread development and adoption of the collaborative, integrated work style envisioned by 

MGI. 

Milestone 1.1.1: Over a two-year period, increase the cumulative number of researchers who 

have participated in MGI-related projects by 50%. [Department of Defense (DOD), 

Department of Energy (DOE), and National Science Foundation (NSF)]13

Milestone 1.1.2: Hold regular, multiagency principal investigator meetings to build a stronger 

MGI community. Include industry representatives in these meetings. [DOD, DOE, and NSF]

The Federal Government can further emphasize integration among academia, National and Federal 

laboratories, and industry by supporting activities that increase interactions between the communities. 

Examples include establishing new partnership opportunities around foundational engineering problems 

(FEPs), wherein an integrated, multidisciplinary team applies computational and experimental techniques 

toward achieving a specific performance goal in an engineering material or component.14 Initially 

recommended by the 2008 National Research Council study, a FEP aids in research prioritization and 

demonstrates the power of integrated computational and experimental techniques. Partnerships 

between academic research and industry are critical for a shared understanding of which computational 

and experimental tools are needed most urgently, introduction and permeation of such tools, and training 

and education of the next-generation workforce required to use them. 

 

13 Throughout the remainder of this document, each milestone will list in brackets the agencies or interagency groups taking a 

lead role in the task.

14 Ibid. 1.
 9 

Milestone 1.1.3: Over a two-year period, add multiple FEP projects supported by the Federal 

Government. [DOD and DOE]

Air Force Research Laboratory Foundational Engineering

Problem in Composites

Fully realizing the potential of advanced polymer matrix composites (PMCs) in aerospace systems is 

limited by the lack of integrated simulation tools that capture enough detail to adequately represent the 

complexity of these high-performance materials in system designs. Specifically, the ability to link the 

chemistry of PMC processing with mechanical performance, particularly the load response and damage 

evolution for high-temperature PMCs, is hindering applications. The current design process typically relies 

on repetitive analysis and testing to incrementally build confidence in composite performance. This 

process results in overly conservative or inadequate component designs for complex structures and 

requires more time and higher testing costs.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate is leading a collaboration 

among General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Autodesk, Convergent Materials, University of Dayton Research 

Institute, and University of Michigan to develop the integrated materials engineering computational tools 

needed to model the complexity of PMCs across different spatial and temporal domains. This new work 

integrates high-fidelity processing and mechanics simulation tools for high-temperature PMCs into the 

composite material design, qualification, and certification processes. The resulting tools can be used for 

designing prototypical components such as an airframe wing box and an engine bypass duct to 

demonstrate reduced cost, time, and risk in using PMC materials. Additionally, reduced conservatism in 

designs and accelerated transition to next-generation materials will enable performance improvements 

and significant fuel savings for new aircraft.

Image courtesy Air Force Research Laboratory

With broad Federal agency involvement in MGI, there are growing opportunities for cross-agency 

collaboration to take advantage of agency-specific expertise. For example, in 2013 DOE’s Office of Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) awarded the first grants in a pioneering partnership between 

EERE and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Under this program, NIST will curate 

repositories of materials data and models that result from research funded by the DOE-EERE program in 
 10 

lightweight automotive materials. This partnership can be modeled for extension to other agencies and 

can be applied to the broader MGI community through the dissemination of NIST-developed best 

practices in data management.

Milestone 1.1.4: Over a two-year period, identify opportunities for three new MGI-related 

cross-agency grants or coordinated projects. [DOD, DOE, and NIST]

Objective 1.2: Facilitate Adoption of the MGI Approach

Supporting higher levels of collaboration solely through Federal investments will not be enough to realize 

the benefits of the MGI approach; long-term success will require building on these capabilities and new 

institutional incentives for broader adoption of MGI approaches for materials science and engineering 

research in academia, National and Federal laboratories, and industry. Ultimately, individual industrial 

sectors have to see the value in adopting this paradigmof collaboration. Targeted outreach to professional 

societies, industry consortia, and materials industry leaders can help to establish familiarity and stimulate 

discussion in the community. The National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on the 

Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) will continue to serve as a convening agent to help facilitate 

interaction with industry and crystallize the vision of MGI.

Integration of new tools into the evolving industry and manufacturing landscape will be critical to the 

long-term success of MGI. Activity to establish the foundation and basic infrastructure building blocks of 

the MGI constitute the majority of this strategic plan but the SMGI acknowledges future work and 

leadership will be required to forge deeper integration and ties to industry. Such activity may include 

further development of public private partnerships to address advanced manufacturing needs as well as 

time-to-market constraints such as qualification and certification in the commercialization of new 

materials, devices, and systems. 

Further, to facilitate exchange across academia, National and Federal laboratories, and industry and to 

facilitate the use of an MGI approach where applicable in industry, the Federal Government and the 

private sector could explore opportunities to support entrepreneurial training and industry experiences 

for students in all materials science and engineering-related disciplines. This type of educational program 

provides at least two benefits: the up-and-coming workforce has hands-on opportunities for applying 

MGI techniques learned in the classroom, and these students perform informal technology transfer by 

bringing expertise in the cutting-edge tools emerging from the research community directly to industry.

Milestone 1.2.1: Work with materials science and engineering university programs, 

professional societies, and industry to define venues that promote interactions, transition, 

and integration between academic and industry researchers, including students, on MGIrelated projects. [Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI)]

In addition, the Federal Government has demonstrated success in recent years in the use of incentive 

prizes and challenges to stimulate interest in well-defined R&D challenges; both the private sector and 

the Federal Government have available mechanisms through which to issue incentive prizes or challenges 

to solve identified technical challenges and to foster new collaborations.
 11 

Milestone 1.2.2: Over a two-year period, launch an incentive prize focused on demonstrating 

the use of MGI techniques to rapidly deliver new materials. [DOE, the National Aeronautics 

and Space Administration (NASA), and NIST]

Objective 1.3: Engage with the International Community

Accelerating the pace of discovery and deployment of advanced materials systems is in the economic 

interests of both the United States and its international partners in science, technology, and innovation. 

Many nations have identified advanced materials as a driver for industrial leadership and innovation; 

closer collaboration on these issues will provide mutual benefit, stimulating economies and bringing new 

opportunities for innovative technologies. While Federal agencies individually pursue international 

collaborations to further their mission goals, SMGI also has taken steps to engage with the international 

materials science and engineering community. Through the State Department and ministerial meetings 

led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), numerous opportunities exist for discussions 

of topics such as mutually compatible data access and sharing policies for materials data and identification 

of critical research needs in specific industrial sectors. Ultimately, these discussions will help both U.S. 

and partner research communities better target resources toward bottlenecks in the process and identify 

specific opportunities to reduce the time to market.

Milestone 1.3.1: Continue to pursue opportunities for collaborations with international 

partners, participate in international forums for discussions of materials science R&D, and 

build on strengths of existing international partnerships. [SMGI]

Goal 2: Integrate Experiments, Computation, and Theory

MGI emphasizes integration of tools, theories, models, and data from basic scientific research with the 

processing, manufacturing, and deployment of materials. The Materials Innovation Infrastructure will 

enable this integration by providing access to digital resources that contain the property data of known 

materials as well as the computational and experimental tools to predict these characteristics for new and 

emerging materials. Example applications include using integrated tool sets to identify replacements for 

critical materials, and then translating these new materials into the production pipeline. Ultimately, 

seamless integration of fundamental, validated understanding can be incorporated into the simulation 

and modeling tools used for materials discovery, product and manufacturing designs, component life 

predictions, and informed maintenance protocols.

The objectives that follow address the parts of this integration process that have been identified to date. 

The related, but distinct topic of open data access and associated issues relating to large data repositories 

is summarized in Goal 3, p. 20.

Objective 2.1: Create a MGI Network of Resources

Many of the initial Federal activities in support of MGI have been investments in a growing cadre of 

researchers whose work contributes to the development of the Materials Innovation Infrastructure. 

Connecting these researchers to each other, as well as connecting the broader materials community, from 

discovery and design through manufacturing, to the array of available capabilities, is the next critical task 

in developing a nationwide network of resources for materials science and engineering R&D.
 12 

Researchers need access to experimental capabilities for materials synthesis and characterization, 

whether for validating predictive capabilities of computational models or for empirical experimentation. 

High-tech experimental capabilities are available nationwide, and information about these resources will 

be a useful tool for researchers applying the MGI approach. Furthermore, MGI stakeholders also need 

access to modeling and software tools that are experimentally validated and widely functional across 

multiple platforms and user communities. These tools should include models that address the length and 

timescales required for practical applications, namely the size and projected lifetimes of engineered 

devices, while still preserving the scientific knowledge developed at the shortest lengths and times that 

determine the behavior and physical properties of the materials. Fundamental, science-driven, and wellcharacterized computational models need to be integrated with application-focused codes for integrated 

design, verification, performance prediction and sustainment, and other uses. Enhancing communication 

and sharing of common enabling tools through a community network of code and software developers 

will accelerate the availability of these tools to a wider range of users. A key aspect of this objective is 

establishing a resource with information on ongoing efforts across the materials research community 

engaged in the development of experimental and computational tools15.

Milestone 2.1.1: Work with the materials community across the full materials development 

continuum to establish an information inventory, including contact information or web links,

for openly available codes, software, and experimental capabilities for synthesis and 

characterization, as a resource for the community. [SMGI]

Since the community that develops models and software is often distinct from the community that can

make productive use of them, MGI needs to establish a path forward for transforming research-grade 

code into robust and sufficiently user-friendly software that meets the needs of user communities in 

academic, National and Federal laboratory, and industrial settings. In addition, pathways should be 

developed to nurture nascent efforts for the long-term development and maintenance of code and 

software packages; cross-disciplinary research programs that include computer science, information 

technology, and materials science are one method being explored. The private sector also pursues

relevant software development on its own, providing another opportunity for productive public-private 

partnerships. Engagement with the private sector may also include facilitating the discovery of federally 

supported research outcomes and exploration of new business opportunities for commercially-supported 

software. 

Through networking activities, researchers can foster the development and understanding of the best and 

proven approaches to successfully evolve the required software. Material-specific networks can identify 

priorities for interoperability standards, define necessary documentation, and identify common software 

modules that cross multiple applications.

Milestone 2.1.2: Establish a network of research groups focused on developing predictive 

software for structural materials.16 Document lessons learned and best practices for use in

launching an additional network for other material and application areas. [DOD, DOE, NIST, 

and NSF]

 

15 Throughout this document, the term “computational tools” is intended to include the theory, simulation, algorithms, and 

software enabling the design, discovery, and deployment of materials.

16 Structural materials were chosen as an early proof of principle given the existing community-building work underway.
 13 

NanoHUB as a Model for a MGI Software Network

The development and distribution of software tools and associated educational resources are an 

important component of the Materials Innovation Infrastructure. One successful approach that the 

Materials Genome Initiative could emulate is nanoHUB.org, an online nanotechnology simulation 

community developed and operated by the National Science Foundation’s Network for Computational 

Nanotechnology at Purdue University. NanoHUB empowers a worldwide community via cloud-based

scientific computing and educational resources, providing a library of over 3,300 seminars, tutorials, and 

teaching materials to an active community of 257,000 users worldwide. NanoHUB’s impact on research 

is demonstrated by more than 1,030 citations in the scientific literature and over 6,000 secondary 

citations. Furthermore, nanoHUB makes more than 270 constantly evolving simulation and modeling 

tools universally accessible and useful via fully interactive sessions in the cloud. Some 12,500 users run 

more than 430,000 simulations annually without any software installation, simply by using a web browser. 

Additionally, nanoHUB simulations are used at more than 180 institutions in formal classroom training 

that has reached 19,000 students to date. The image below graphically depicts the 250,000 users 

participating in nanoHUB as of February 2013. Red dots indicate users of education materials; yellow dots 

indicate simulation users.

Image courtesy Purdue University

Objective 2.2: Enable Creation of Accurate, Reliable Simulations 

Success for MGI will require expansion of the current theory, modeling, and simulation tools available to 

the materials research and engineering community. Activities across the Federal Government will address 

predictive design of specific materials with the goal of developing robust computational tools with wellcharacterized predictive capability across the R&D continuum, including both discovery and processing 

steps, and making these tools available to the broader community. Development of these computational 

tools also relies on the broad availability of computational resources; the Federal Government has a long 

tradition in developing, and making available to the research community, high performance 

computational facilities. MGI will be able to take substantial advantage of these resources.

New computational methods implemented in software must be verified against known solutions and 

developed in concert with experiments to validate the output. As outlined in the next objective, 

specialized experimental tools often are required to provide the data necessary for validation. In 
 14 

addition, the integration of these advanced computational tools into experimental designs will drive faster 

and more robust experimental results from materials discovery through testing and integration of 

components.

Specific technical barriers in simulation also impede substantial advancement in the field of materials. For 

example, the materials science and engineering community has long recognized the challenges of 

multiscale theory and modeling. Since a material’s performance is influenced by dynamics encountered 

at all length scales—from the atomic to macroscale—effective material design requires the integration of 

models, as well as the information derived from models, from many length scales. Equally important are 

the needsto quantitatively characterize and model a material’s evolution to capture phenomena over the 

timescales relevant to application targets for industrial use. Directed efforts within MGI can address these 

specific technical needs; community input is needed to define the major scientific and technical challenges 

for theory, modeling, and simulation for all material types.

Milestone 2.2.1: Convene the materials community working across all technology readiness 

levels to identify major scientific and engineering challenges for theory, modeling, and 

simulation for different materials classes and associated cross-cutting methods and 

algorithms. Hold a workshop annually and publish an associated report with an evolving focus 

on different material types.17 Projected topics to be addressed in the first four years include

structural materials, magnetic materials, energy storage materials, and electronic materials. 

[SMGI]

 

17 All workshops outlined in this document are intended to include a broad array of relevant stakeholders as participants and to

publish a summary report outlining the recommendations of the participants in addressing the workshop charge.
 15 

The Materials Project

Advanced materials will define the next generation of clean, safe, and affordable energy storage and 

distribution technologies, and first-principles modeling is providing a strong tool for accelerating the 

discovery of novel chemistries. While these techniques have broad applications, researchers at the 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are using 

these theoretically sound calculations to rapidly determine key attributes of materials for energy storage

because very little is known about these chemistries.

When designing novel compounds for energy storage, predicting a material’s crystal structure is crucial. 

Typically, this exercise is treated purely as a computational energy minimization problem, a strategy 

fraught with enormous difficulty. Yet the use of data mining tools on the large amount of experimental 

data available for crystal structures may enable “learning” the rules of nature more efficiently in a 

mathematical way, a process which then rapidly drives the computations toward a new compound’s most 

likely crystal structure. Such information would be invaluable for materials design and optimization, 

because it allows the linkage of compositional changes to those of crystal structure. In a successful 

example of this approach, the MIT and LBNL teams have identified many hundreds of new oxide 

compounds, several of which function as lithium (Li) battery electrode materials.

The interplay among experiments is also particularly important in understanding how materials will 

perform. For example, the fascinating recent discovery of Li10GeP2S12 (LGPS), a novel solid-state 

electrolyte with extremely high lithium conductivity, led researchers to claim that LGPS was stable over a 

five volt (V) range. Using the large amounts of computed phase stability data now available through the 

Materials Project (www.materialsproject.org), such claims can be compared rapidly against computations. 

The results indicate that while the lithium conductivity could be confirmed with computations, firstprinciples phase diagrams clearly predict an electrochemical voltage window of no more than three V. 

More importantly, the computations allowed exploration of the impact of minor changes in the 

composition that could increase affordability or decrease ionic conductivity. These predictions have since 

been confirmed experimentally, demonstrating the power of computations for rapidly evaluating new 

ideas emerging from experiments and targeting optimization directions with the most potential.

Objective 2.3: Improve Experimental Tools—From Materials Discovery through Deployment

Materials are typically hierarchical in structure, from the atomic to the macroscale. Such hierarchies pose 

formidable challenges for both experiments and simulation. Tools to measure changes in structure, 

chemistry, and properties that have advanced the understanding of materials are found at x-ray and 

neutron facilities and in laboratories for electron, ion, and laser spectroscopy. Equally critical tools for the 

synthesis and fabrication of many materials are now available with atomic-level control of composition 

and structure and have extensive diagnostics capabilities for monitoring processing. Even so, the “best” 

of these tools typically are limited to specific materials systems or to small quantities of materials (e.g., 

thin films and nanoparticles). Many of the best characterization techniques still rely on significant sample 

preparations that are extraordinarily time-consuming and may modify or destroy the structures 

associated with the most interesting properties. Thus, to generate experimental data and validate 

predictions from theory, modeling, and simulation, continued advances in experimental tools are needed. 
 16 

One example of improved experimental capability showing early promise is high-throughput 

experimentation, a method of parallelizing experiments to run many tests at once, often through the use

of automation and small scale samples. Further, rapid growth in the application of high-throughput, 

combinatorial synthesis techniques in which large numbers of materials are rapidly synthesized in arrays 

of materials with different molecular or elemental compositions has the potential to identify unexplored 

pathways for materials synthesis and generate large quantities of experimental data. These synthesis 

techniques must be partnered with comparable combinatorial characterization capabilities that can 

rapidly measure the relevant properties of the individual materials in the array in order to maximize the 

potential of high-throughput experimental methodologies for creating and identifying new materials with 

desirable properties.

The complexity of materials for today’s technologies imposes additional challenges for MGI. For example, 

in advanced electronics and photonics, the material of interest is itself an interface between other 

materials or a surface that requires exquisite control of composition and doping for optimum 

performance. The ability to make materials with this level of structural control will require the 

development of new synthetic techniques and processes. A 2009 report from the National Research 

Council, Frontiers in Crystalline Matter: From Discovery to Technology, points to a national need to 

enhance the U.S. capability for making crystalline materials including two-dimensional and thin-film 

crystals.18

 

18 National Research Council, Frontiers in Crystalline Matter: From Discovery to Technology, (2009) Washington, D.C.: The 

National Academies Press. (available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12640).
 17 

Soft Materials Data Generation and Exchange Through the nSoft Consortium

An unparalleled range of properties—from fluidity to steel-like strength—can be achieved with soft 

materials, such as polymers, proteins, and colloids, simply by changing their molecular architecture and 

processing parameters. These unique materials are often suggested as an optimal solution for emerging 

societal needs in advanced body armor, lightweight transportation, sustainable agriculture, advanced 

energy storage and delivery, and the next generation of advanced therapeutics. Yet the complex 

relationship of molecular architecture, processing parameters, and performance of soft materials defies 

current characterization methods and challenges any attempt to develop predictive performance models. 

Lacking this predictive modeling capability, many researchers are forced to adopt more costly or 

insufficient solutions to understand these materials. Neutrons, with their powerful ability to highlight 

individual molecules and phases, can be used to characterize materials with high precision under 

processing conditions, thus providing a way of obtaining the critical physical parameters needed for 

integration into state-of-the-art predictive modeling tools. The Materials Genome Initiative creates an 

opportunity to leverage unique data derived from both experiment and computation to foster a new 

generation of high-performance, low-density, cost-effective materials. Additional benefits could be 

realized in the stability of high-concentration antibody formulations, shear thickening fluids for body 

armor, and membranes for clean water technology. The National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST) Material Measurement Laboratory is committed to providing these relationships through the nSoft 

industrial consortium (www.nist.gov/nsoft), which operates a suite of world-leading neutron-based 

measurement tools at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). nSoft members are leading 

manufacturers of soft materials, spanning industrial sectors from petrochemicals to aerospace to 

biopharmaceuticals. In addition to providing critical data required for predictive modeling, the nSoft 

membership represents a key space for gaining tangible connections between stakeholder needs and 

transfer of data as well as identifying emerging trends in manufacturing.

Since the goal of MGI is to accelerate the discovery, design, development, and deployment of new 

materials into manufactured products, expanded use of real-time methods is essential for dynamic 

analysis of materials in situ—that is, taking measurements in realistic environments (not only in a vacuum 

or at ambient conditions) during the synthesis, processing, and “use” of materials. These types of data 

are necessary for validating the accuracy of theories and models, completing data sets where theories 

and models are not yet comprehensive, and informing predictions of how a material’s properties emerge 

and change with time.

Milestone 2.3.1: Convene a multiagency workshop to assess the current state and future 

directions for characterization tools that allow in situ and in operando assessments of 

materials properties, synthesis, and processes. [DOD, DOE, NASA, NIST, and NSF]

An MGI approach contributes to accelerated materials development and deployment, in part, by 

integrating computational and experimental tools to better predict, and therefore control, how 

manufacturing process parameters will affect final material and product performance. This capability 

allows the co-development of component design and optimized properties tailored for the product. 

Consideration of the full range of material characteristics, properties, and manufacturing steps that are 

required to produce a material or incorporate a material into products is integral to achieving the goal of 
 18 

MGI. With structural materials, for example, manufacturing processes may include machining, forming, 

casting, and welding, as well as quality control to ensure that the materials achieve the desired final 

properties. For other types of materials such as catalysts, the materials may be the final product and a 

host of complex synthesis and processing steps result in a material with the required functionality. In all 

cases, materials development and implementation must be performed responsibly across the entire life 

cycle of the material; the use of scarce materials should be minimized, potential toxicity should be 

assessed early in the materials development process, and options for reuse or safe disposal of materials 

should be considered.

Once materials are deployed, prediction of their performance lifetime in service is crucial. The integrated 

tools developed under MGI to understand a material’s lifetime behavior, and the associated uncertainties 

in those predictions, also will enable users to create designs for maintainability. In addition, there is 

substantial benefit to integrating diagnostic systems that allow for real-time awareness of a material’s 

evolution (changes in structure and chemistry) and functional performance. MGI activities will include 

developing the computational and experimental tools for advancing today’s understanding of how time 

and environmental factors impact a material’s structural evolution.

The development of improved sensor systems, associated software for in-line quality assessments during 

manufacture, and reliable predictions of time to failure would substantially benefit many application 

areas. These post-deployment materials evolution challenges are rarely incorporated into the materials 

design paradigm because the models describing these processes are immature and thus, of limited utility

in design. Such depth of understanding could enable accelerated tests of materials, further reducing the 

time for critical steps in materials development and product design, integration, and certification.

Milestone 2.3.2: Convene a series of multiagency workshops to identify major scientific and 

technical challenges limiting the application of the integrated, collaborative MGI approach

toward advanced manufacturing of materials and products. Conduct workshops in the first 

four years focusing on specific material classes and applications including lightweight metals,

catalysts, batteries and energy storage, and semiconductors and integrated circuits. [NIST, 

DOE, DOD, and NSF]

Understanding the time required at each step in the materials development continuum, from materials 

discovery to deployment in the marketplace, is critical to decreasing the total time to market for new 

materials. Existing evidence is largely anecdotal, and studies are needed to benchmark the current state 

of the art across many industries, materials classes, and applications to be able to measure and assess 

success.

Milestone 2.3.3: Initiate benchmarking studies to quantify the current time to market for a 

subset of materials classes or applications. [NIST]

Objective 2.4: Develop Data Analytics to Enhance the Value of Experimental and Computational 

Data

A growing challenge across many scientific domains is the magnitude of data—both computational and 

experimental—that can be produced with some of the current generation of tools. The next goal in this 

strategic plan discusses the objectives and milestones associated with developing and maintaining the 

required databases to enable assessments of this data. The availability of high-quality experimental and 
 19 

computational data also presents an opportunity for data mining and analysis to expand and accelerate 

discovery of new materials and predictions of materials with new functionalities. Data mining and analysis 

will be enabled by the availability of materials data in common formats and with consistent metadata to 

establish the information’s provenance. In addition, some experimental results can be accelerated by 

real-time analysis of experimental data with modeling and simulation tools that enable data 

interpretation, guiding the evolution of ongoing experiments.

Milestone 2.4.1: Convene a path-finding workshop focused on the status of computational 

tools for data analytics for applications emerging from materials sciences and engineering. 

[NIST]
 20 

Goal 3: Facilitate Access to Materials Data

The availability of high-quality materials data is crucial to achieving the advances proposed by MGI. 

Materials data can be used for input in modeling activities, as the medium for knowledge discovery, or as 

evidence for validating predictive theories and techniques. If made widely available, disparate sources of 

materials data also could be inventoried to identify gaps in available data and to limit redundancy in 

research efforts. To benefit from broadly accessible materials data, a culture of data sharing must 

accompany the construction of a modern materials data infrastructure that includes the software, 

hardware, and data standards necessary to enable discovery, access, and use of materials science and 

engineering data.

Driven by a diverse set of communities with unique and heterogeneous requirements, this data 

infrastructure should allow online access to materials data to provide information quickly and easily. A 

set of highly distributed repositories should be available to house, search, and curate materials data 

generated by both experiments and calculations. Community-developed standards should provide the 

format, metadata, data types, criteria for data inclusion and retirement, and protocols necessary for 

interoperability and seamless data transfer. This effort should include methods for capturing data, 

incorporating these methods into existing workflows, and developing and sharing workflows. This 

strategy requires a structured approach starting with the commissioning of path-finding efforts to identify 

the required architecture, standards, and policies needed to build a materials data infrastructure. 

Important to note is that many of the needed information technology solutions are available or under 

development; the strategy defined here leverages these technical advances and concentrates on applying 

them in the context of materials research.

Objective 3.1: Identify Best Practices for Implementation of a Materials Data Infrastructure

A materials data infrastructure combining the software, hardware, and community-wide standards to 

allow discovery, access, and use of materials data is one of the critical components of the Materials 

Innovation Infrastructure envisioned by MGI. The variety and complexity of materials data have 

hampered the creation of a single, widely accepted vision of the structure, organization, and other 

specifics needed for a materials data infrastructure. Given these complexities and the endeavor’s scale, 

critical objectives are to explore best practices used by existing data collections and to learn from ongoing 

efforts to establish materials data repositories and other data infrastructures. In establishing best 

practices, lessons from similar efforts in other fields will be exploited. For example, the Human Genome 

Project of more than a decade ago created a revolution in the field of genomics that continues to be fueled 

by a consolidated data effort.19 Likewise, the earth sciences community continues to explore and define 

the necessary elements of their shared data model through the path-finding EarthCube collaboration.20

Milestone 3.1.1: Convene a series of multiagency workshops that engage stakeholders, 

including researchers from academia, industry, publishing, and government to establish the 

needs of the disparate materials communities, identify the barriers to creating a materials 

 

19 For more information, see www.ornl.gov/hgmis.

20 For more information, see www.nsf.gov/geo/earthcube.
 21 

data infrastructure, and define potential methods of overcoming these obstacles. [DOD and 

NIST]

Best practice assessments will be coordinated across the Federal agencies to ensure that the outcomes 

meet agency missions while maximizing efficiency and efficacy of the resulting infrastructure. This 

coordination also will allow potential integration of the resulting infrastructure into other 

cyberinfrastructure activities within the Federal agencies, maximizing the benefit to a broader scientific 

community.

While assessing the various technical requirements associated with creating and maintaining repositories, 

the stakeholder community should identify needs associated with using the data, such as new tools to 

access information quickly and accurately as well as advanced data analytics. MGI activities will be able 

to leverage ongoing efforts by the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development 

Program (NITRD)21 and the broader community surrounding Big Data22 to provide some solutions to these 

questions.

Current agency data management plans, such as those pioneered by NSF23, require researchers to 

consider how they will manage the data generated during the course of research and make that data 

available to other researchers. With the recent OSTP guidance24 to increase access to the results of 

federally funded scientific research, data management will evolve and over time, more data will become 

publicly available.

Milestone 3.1.2: Foster ongoing discussion of best practices in data management plans used 

by participating agencies with the opportunity to leverage these for broader applications

within the MGI community. [SMGI]

An important means for incentivizing data sharing is to ensure that those who generate the data receive 

proper credit. Thus, community norms need to be developed for proper citation of digital data, including 

the technical infrastructure to make data citation straightforward and function in a manner similar to the 

digital object identifier system currently used to cite published papers. Numerous national and 

international bodies, such as the International Council for Science and National Information Standards 

Organization, are actively studying this topic and developing practices and standards for data attribution 

and citation that MGI-developed repositories could choose to adopt.25,26,27 Over the long term, adoption 

 

21 For more information, see www.nitrd.gov.

22 For more information, see www.WhiteHouse.gov/blog/2012/03/29/big-data-big-deal.

23 For more information, see www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp.

24 For more information, see www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf.

25 For example: International Council for Science: Committee on Data for Science and Technology, Data Citation Standards and 

Practices Task Group (available online at www.codata.org/taskgroups/TGdatacitation/index.html).

26 For example: DataCite (available online at www.datacite.org).

27 For example: National Information Standards Organization Forum, “Tracking it Back to the Source: Managing and Citing 

Research Data” (2011) (available online at www.niso.org/news/events/2012/tracking_it_back_to_the_source).
 22 

of data attribution and citation standards within materials science communities will require a combination 

of community dialogue, education, and adaptation.28,29,30

Objective 3.2: Support Creation of Accessible Materials Data Repositories

Objective 3.1 aims to identify the elements of a materials data infrastructure and associated standards 

necessary to support repository interoperability and seamless data transfer. This infrastructure is 

anticipated eventually to comprise a federation of public and participating private repositories (or 

“federated databases”), which may be networked together while remaining geographically separate, 

providing online access to materials data for both research and industrial applications. These highly 

distributed repositories would be available to house the curated data and incorporate data generated by 

both experiments and simulations. Yet several challenges remain in defining and creating the 

infrastructure within which these repositories would operate.

A successful data infrastructure will provide useful materials information to academia, National and 

Federal laboratories, and industry quickly and easily. Such an infrastructure should provide data together 

with sufficient descriptive information to properly identify it, assess its utility, and support both simple 

and complex semantic-based queries across the range of federated data repositories. 

Milestone 3.2.1: Develop and implement at least three materials data repository pilot 

projects to assess a range of repository models and initiate the definition of a materials data 

infrastructure model. [DOD, DOE, and NIST]

These pilot projects will be used to explore, adapt, and test the technological modalities needed to 

develop a data infrastructure. Communities of interest would conduct these pilot projects to define the 

standards requirements, including formats and protocols for data sharing and interoperability, for 

enabling a federated system without explicit central control. The end product would be a model of a 

working system comprising high-value and practical community-based standards, and it would 

demonstrate tools for search and identification of existing experimental or calculated materials data that 

could be used in a specific endeavor. Data would be presented with sufficient information to assess and 

select which data are useful, and appropriate linkages would be provided to the data access mechanisms.

 

28 Nelson, B., 2009. “Data Sharing: Empty Archives,” Nature 461, 160.

29 Nature Editorial, 2013. “Disciplinary Action: How Scientists Share and Reuse Information Is Driven by Technology but Shaped 

by Discipline,” Nature, 495, 409–410.

30 For example: Research Data Alliance (available online at www.rd-alliance.org).
 23 

Goal 4: Equip the Next-Generation Materials Workforce

For the Nation and materials research community to take full advantage of the MGI framework outlined 

in previous sections, the next-generation materials workforce must be trained in these new research

methods. Students will need access to an education that enables them to work productively in teams 

whose expertise covers the broad materials spectrum from synthesis and characterization, to theory and 

modeling, to design and manufacture. In practical terms, students who will go on to become experts in 

materials synthesis, processing, or manufacture, for example, must have enough training to understand 

materials modeling and theory, while modelers and theorists must understand the vocabulary and 

challenges of those who make, characterize, and implement materials solutions. Accomplishing this goal 

will require continued updatesin the materials science and engineering curricula as well as in departments 

that contribute to educating the next-generation materials discovery, development, and deployment 

workforce. Just as many materials science and engineering departments have added computational 

materials science to their curriculum in recent years, formal instruction on data analytics, uncertainty 

quantification, and the integration of simulation, experiment, and theory will provide students with the 

foundation to successfully implement an MGI approach in their academic or industry careers. 

The Federal government’s broader activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 

education are driven by the Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education 

5-year Strategic Plan, which identifies five priority areas for STEM education investment.31 Two of these 

priority areas, enhancing the STEM experiences of undergraduates and designing graduate education for 

tomorrow’s STEM workforce, are pivotal for achieving the goals of MGI and the Federal government’s

specific activities will be designed to coordinate with the implementation strategies under development 

in these areas. 

Objective 4.1: Pursue New Curriculum Development and Implementation 

As a prelude to preparing students for working in a collaborative and iterative manner utilizing the tools 

developed under MGI, the first step is to educate faculty about the goals of MGI including its approach 

and tools. The Federal Government is enabling this process through support for numerous workshops 

and academic research grants funded by MGI programs at NSF, DOD, and DOE. For MGI to be successful, 

researchers will need to work closely in teams of professionals from disparate backgrounds. Researchers 

who focus on making or processing materials also, for example, must have the analytical expertise to 

understand the capabilities that modeling materials and processes can enable. Likewise, theorists and 

modelers must be exposed to topics such as the processes and limitations of making, processing, and 

characterizing materials.

Milestone 4.1.1: Create opportunities, such as summer schools or laboratory internships, 

aimed at training faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students in the MGI 

approach to materials science and engineering. Topics may include familiarizing experimental 

materials scientists with current state-of-the-art modeling and theory and familiarizing 

 

31 National Science and Technology Council Committee on Education, Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and 

Mathematics (STEM) Education 5-year Strategic Plan (2013) (available online at 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/stem_stratplan_2013.pdf). 
 24 

computational materials scientists with synthesis and characterization techniques and 

limitations. [DOD, DOE, and NSF]

As the number of faculty engaged in integrating theory, modeling, and experimentation increases, 

curriculum supporting this approach, both in materials science and engineering and other departments, 

will be developed. Materials research is inherently interdisciplinary with participation from experts 

beyond the traditional academic materials science and engineering departments, including but not limited 

to physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, bioengineering, applied mathematics, computer science, 

mechanical engineering, and manufacturing engineering. Therefore, the leadership of academic 

departments, universities, and professional societies will be crucial. 

Milestone 4.1.2: Convene university departments engaged in materials research, including 

physics, chemistry, bioscience, and engineering, to identify: (1) the educational approaches 

and the institutional and professional incentives needed to sustain interdisciplinary research,

and (2) opportunities to better integrate theory, modeling, experimental, and data analytics 

training for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers or research in materials. 

Identify and share best practices through annual meetings of academic leaders. [SMGI]

The Federal Government can engage universities to facilitate development and adoption of new content 

and methods in related curricula through a number of potential mechanisms, including those covered in 

Milestone 4.1.2. NSF, the lead agency in implementing Federal STEM undergraduate and graduate 

education activities, would coordinate Federal efforts to foster curriculum development and 

implementation related to MGI goals.

Many undergraduate and graduate students studying materials science will pursue careers in industry 

where they will be responsible for developing and deploying the advanced materials of the future. For 

this reason, it is important to engage industrial leaders in identifying the skills and expertise that will 

enable the next generation of materials researchers to incorporate effective MGI-driven tools and 

practices in establishing a vibrant 21st century materials and manufacturing base in the United States. 

Input is needed from industry, National and Federal laboratories, and academia to address the evolving 

capability requirements and curriculum changes.

Milestone 4.1.3: Facilitate discussions among Federal agencies, academia, and industry to 

identify capabilities and skill requirements for recent graduates entering the industrial 

workforce and ways to prioritize their development at educational institutions. [SMGI]
 25 

Fostering Education in MGI Techniques 

Enabling the capabilities developed under the Materials Genome Initiative to be used widely and 

effectively to accelerate materials development requires equipping the next-generation workforce with 

new tools and multidisciplinary work experiences. While not the norm, one bold approach to providing 

undergraduates with such an environment has been developed in a series of materials design education 

innovations at Northwestern University. 

Recognizing that an engineering discipline is defined by what can be practiced with a bachelor’s degree, 

the Northwestern-led Steel Research Group design consortium developed a computational design 

methodology that can be taught to undergraduates, starting with an undergraduate Materials Design 

course in 1989.32 In a unique integration of research and education, teams of materials science 

undergraduates conduct annual iterations of theoretical design optimization employing the newest 

experimental measurements and model and simulation predictions. The course features a series of labs 

teaching a suite of computational design tools grounded in the materials fundamental databases and the 

graphical parametric design integration approach.33

The undergraduate teams are coached by doctoral students participating in funded design projects.34 

These Ph.D. students are, in turn, assisted by a broader group of graduate students contributing to 

projects under a special interdisciplinary doctoral cluster program in Predictive Science and Engineering 

Design (PSED). A central outreach activity to promulgate the new design practices to a broader audience 

is a Master of Science certificate program in Integrated Computational Materials Engineering through 

which first-year M.S. students also participate in the interdisciplinary PSED seminar, culminating in an 

integrative project in the Materials Design course.

Under the materials science and engineering undergraduate program featuring multiyear design 

education, undergraduates taking the Materials Design course in their third year can participate in the 

experimental validation of their design prototypes in their senior projects the following year. To enhance 

recruitment to the materials program, student teams from a special “Murphy Scholars” section of a 

freshman-level Engineering Design and Communication course also collaborate with the undergraduate 

design teams, adding exploration of device applications for the new materials.35 Featuring a highly 

effective “techmanities” cross-cultural design program, the latter course is co-taught by humanities 

faculty in the Writing Program. The broader goal is to develop, assess, and enable similarly new integrated 

approaches to engineering education across the expanded collection of materials classes.

Objective 4.2: Provide Opportunities for Integrated Research Experiences 

Opportunities for students to become engaged in research with faculty or in industrial internships often 

augments science and engineering coursework. These activities cement the knowledge gained through 

 

32 Olson, G. B., 1991. “Materials Design: An Undergraduate Course,” in P. K. Liaw, J. R. Weertman, H. L. Markus, and J. S. Santner 

(Eds.), Morris E. Fine Symposium, TMS-AIME, Warrendale, PA. 41.

33 Olson, G. B., 2001. “Brains of Steel: Mind Melding with Materials,” International Journal of Engineering Education, 17, 468.

34 McKenna, A. F., Colgate, J. E. and Olson, G. B., 2006. “Characterizing the Mentoring Process for Developing Effective Design 

Engineers,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference.

35 McKenna, A. F., Colgate, J. E., Carr, S. H., and Olson, G. B., 2006. “IDEA: Formalizing the Foundation for an Engineering Design 

Education,” International Journal of Engineering Education 22, 671.
 26 

coursework and expose students to the excitement of materials discovery and deployment in products 

via real-world, hands-on experience. Likewise, postdoctoral researchers can benefit from opportunities 

to expand their network of collaborators in academia, the National and Federal laboratories, and industry 

during this early-career training period. To hone their knowledge and skills, undergraduate students, 

graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers will need to practice MGI-related techniques in 

academic, government, and/or industrial laboratories as a standard part of their training. Industry will 

play a critical role in this activity, and a community-led workshop should consider appropriate roles of 

industry, Federal support, and new opportunities for mentoring activities related to MGI topics (e.g., 

seminars, internships, job shadowing, or capstone project evaluation). 

Milestone 4.2.1: Facilitate a dialogue on best practices and opportunities both for existing 

programs and potential new partnerships among industry, universities, Federal agencies, and 

National and Federal laboratories to provide opportunities for real-world experience in 

applying the MGI approach. [SMGI] 

Milestone 4.2.2: Develop and propose options for expanding postdoctoral research 

opportunities to include targeted positions in research teams specifically implementing the 

MGI approach. [SMGI]
 27 

Achieving National Objectives 

Advanced materials will facilitate development of the disruptive technologies that will continuously 

improve the quality of life for future generations. To keep U.S. industry globally competitive in critical 

sectors such as national security, human health and welfare, clean energy, infrastructure, and consumer 

products, product innovation and manufacturing should occur more quickly and efficiently than 

comparable efforts by competitors. The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) will provide an innovative 

technological and cultural framework that leverages integrated multidisciplinary research and 

engineering to span public, private, and academic sectors and successfully accelerate the improvement of 

existing materials and processes and development of the visionary materials of the future. 

This chapter highlights the relevance of a successful MGI to achieving national objectives in security, 

human health and welfare, clean energy systems, and infrastructure and consumer products.

National Security

The Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration 

(NNSA), and national defense laboratories are significantly invested in materials research explicitly for 

national security. While DOD uses advanced materials to help protect and arm American troops, and NNSA 

uses advanced materials to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the American nuclear weapons 

deterrent, materials also play a role in many other areas of national security. Materials advances are 

important for lighter-weight protection systems and vehicles, advanced energetic materials, composites 

used in turbine engines, lifetime prediction of defense systems, electronics, and energy storage and 

distribution, among other applications. Many important materials developments eventually are 

transitioned into commercial products that enhance the well-being of the country at large.
 28 

Probing Fuel Cells In Situ with Raman Spectroscopy 

Advanced fuel cell technologies offer highly efficient, clean, and quiet power generation. The portable 

systems envisioned for military applications also must be rugged and robust. Designs must presume 

austere conditions where fuel sources may be limited and not easily certified. Understanding the complex 

reaction kinetics associated with oxygen reduction and fuel oxidation occurring in solid-oxide fuel cell 

(SOFC) designs under specific operating conditions using a variety of fuels is key to providing dependable 

power sources.

Recognizing a critical need for quantitative data describing reactions under relevant operating conditions, 

the Office of Naval Research supported the development of advanced in situ characterization tools. A 

team from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Montana State University has developed in situ optical 

and thermal diagnostics for probing SOFCs at typical operating temperatures of 700° to 800°C using 

Raman spectroscopy and thermal imaging techniques in combination to determine in situ chemistry and 

electrochemical reactions at the SOFC anode.36 These noninvasive, nondestructive, real-time monitoring 

techniques provide quantitative data and visualization of complex phenomena. Tightly integrating the 

development of theoretical and predictive models with such advanced analysis both validates and informs 

more accurate models, enabling researchers to begin to predict how SOFC materials interact with 

different hydrocarbon and alcohol fuels while in operation. 

For example, this diagnostic technique already is revealing conditions that exacerbate carbon production 

during cell operation or that limit detrimental effects on cell performance. As a result, SOFC performance 

could be improved through choice of fuel or SOFC materials composition and structural changes. 

Developing diagnostic capabilities for assessing proper performance functioning of components during 

operation is also possible. 

Human Health and Welfare

Advanced materials are critical to the continuous provision of affordable, abundant, and environmentally 

responsible life essentials, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare commodities. For example, 

emerging biocompatible materials are likely to continue to play a crucial role in technology advancements 

for making targeted medical devices, smart prostheses, and cultivating artificial organs. Organic and solidstate sensors support medical diagnostic tools and in vivo pharmaceutical products delivery, and novel 

chemistries advance delivery and function of medications. New separation technologies enable broader 

access to clean drinking water, a major global health issue. Applying MGI principles to the development 

of these technologies will allow continued U.S. global leadership in providing quality of life for humanity.

 

36 Pomfret, M. B., Walker, R. A., and Owrutsky, J. C., 2012. “High-Temperature Chemistry in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: In Situ 

Optical Studies,” Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 3, 3053.
 29 

Applying MGI Principles to Tissue Engineering

Growing new body tissue from stem or other precursor cells requires understanding and harnessing a 

complex interplay of factors. Current practice involves infusing precursor cells into a porous “scaffold” 

with the goal of inducing them to differentiate into the various cell types that characterize the desired 

tissue. The scaffold material typically is chosen to have a shape, pore size, and pore connectivity that will 

accommodate cell proliferation within an appropriate 3D environment while allowing the scaffold to 

degrade safely as new tissue grows, allowing complete replacement of the scaffold with new tissue over 

time. 

A particularly challenging issue is the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and waste products into and out of 

the growing cells. The difficulty of finding the correct combination of spatial, mechanical, and chemical 

signals, along with appropriately balanced rates of tissue growth and scaffold degradation and 

management of nutrient and waste transport issues, sets up a multifactor optimization problem with 

opportunities for research activities involving an intricate interplay of experiments, computation, and data 

management. An MGI approach that develops a set of integrated tools may be a promising way to address 

this challenge in the rapidly advancing field of tissue engineering.

Clean Energy Systems

Although energy demand in the national energy portfolio is projected to observe only modest increases 

over the next 20 years, the equipment and tools used to support the energy infrastructure will change 

significantly. Acknowledging that global demand is expected to increase by about 50 percent in that same 

timeframe, the need to support rapid materials development is paramount if supply chains are to be 

maintained, especially for new technologies.

Within an “all-of-the-above” national energy strategy—including fossil, nuclear, and renewable sources 

to meet future energy demands—the discovery and deployment of advanced materials for harnessing, 

converting, distributing, and utilizing these energy sources are crucial for providing humanity with 

affordable, abundant, and environmentally responsible energy systems. Examples of such sustainable 

systems include innovative materials to more fully utilize the vast solar resources, pioneering energystorage materials enabling a diverse energy harnessing and delivery infrastructure, novel alloys enabling 

efficient energy conversions in extreme environments, and groundbreaking catalysts promoting the 

production of energy-dense liquid fuels from a variety of feedstocks.

Designing Catalysts from First Principles
 30 

Catalysts are essential in the manufacturing of over 95% of industrial chemicals and fuels, because they 

make difficult conversions technically and economically feasible. Well-known commercial processes 

include, for example, ammonia synthesis with the Haber-Bosch process. Traditionally, catalysts for a 

specific conversion have been identified by a search guided by previous experience. When an untried 

conversion is needed, such searches can be lengthy and frequently are unsuccessful. Linking materials 

structure to reactivity for a certain type of chemical bond usually provides insufficient guidance, because 

the parameter space includes the specific reaction environment plus local, secondary, and long-range 

structures and their dynamics for both the catalysts and the reacting substances. This wide parameter 

space also includes interactions among the reactants, solvent, interfaces, subsurfaces, and bulk of 

materials, as well as excitation from various energy sources.

A completely ab initio design of catalysts for a given conversion without previous experience has yet to 

be achieved, but such a design is much closer to being feasible by means of rational approaches such as 

those envisioned by the Materials Genome Initiative. An example is the SUNCAT Center for Interface 

Science and Catalysis at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where numerous activities are 

underway to improve understanding of catalyst behavior and properties. Electronic structure theory is 

used in combination with experimental methods to model surface reactivity. Use of advanced x-ray 

synchrotron sources at SLAC with synthesis facilities at Stanford University enables atomic-level resolution 

in structural data and molecular-level detail in mechanistic understanding. X-ray studies provide bonding 

information under the same conditions as the catalyst would experience in applications. Interfacial 

spectroscopy, in combination with theories of surface interactions, correlations of bonding trends, and 

simulations of surface dynamics, provides accurate quantification of energy distribution in space and time. 

Studies of yields and reactivity of materials exposed to full catalytic cycles provide correlations among 

structure, stability, and performance.

In parallel with these activities, methods for more predictive theories are being developed. These 

methods involve reexamination of electronic structure theories to maximize accuracy and minimize 

uncertainty. They also include intensive data management consistent with a hybrid set of data sources. 

This extensive combination of experimental and theoretical tools and approaches is crucial for enabling 

sought-after transformations, such as benign biomass depolymerization using light and inexpensive 

photocatalysts.

Infrastructure and Consumer Goods

In addition to the three sectors discussed previously, there are myriad other technology and infrastructure 

applications that contribute to the Nation’s economic prosperity and continue to necessitate

development of new materials. For example, longer-lasting, safer bridges and roadways may be enabled 

by advances in concrete designs. The next generation of cell phones could be built using flexible, solarpowered materials. Advanced optical fibers could one day provide even faster internet access. These 

applications and many more disruptive technologies not yet envisioned may be possible with the 

discoveries and new applications accelerated by MGI. Ultimately, deployment of materials into massproduced consumer goods should be done with attention paid to the safety, disposal, and possible reuse 

of the materials.
 31 

MGI in the Automotive Sector

The automotive industry has been and continues to be a leader in the development and implementation 

of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) tools, resulting in significant development cost 

savings and boosting competiveness for firms that have mastered these tools.37 In an early example, Ford 

Motor Company researchers developed a suite of ICME software tools that captured extensive knowledge 

of aluminum casting technology, aluminum metallurgy, and mechanical behavior and product durability, 

enabling more rapid development of new products and casting processes. Following this ICME adoption, 

Ford Motor Company reported over a seven-to-one return on investment. (A cast aluminum Ford 

Duratech V6 engine block designed using Ford virtual aluminum castings ICME tools is shown below.)

The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) provides a means to enhance and accelerate such developments. 

The continually increasing need to reduce the environmental impact of automobiles requires significant 

reductions in vehicle weights and major advances in powertrain technology. With the primary objective 

of accelerating new materials development, MGI will play an important role in ensuring that these needs 

are met.

To date, the automotive industry has mainly applied ICME tools for rapid, lower-cost product 

development using existing metal alloys, but similar tools can also be applied to new alloy designs. One 

of the first new alloy development programs resulting from MGI likely will be the rapid development of 

new cast aluminum alloys for automotive powertrain components. U.S. automotive companies, including 

General Motors and Chrysler, in collaboration with their suppliers and researchers at universities and 

national laboratories, have launched programs to develop cost-effective, cast aluminum alloys with 

significant improvements in elevated temperature properties, such as strength and resistance to cyclic 

fatigue loading. These alloys are expected to lead to reduced vehicle emissions by enabling higher exhaust 

gas temperatures and significantly reducing engine weight. New alloy demonstrations in running engines 

are expected within the next four to five years, a significant acceleration of the typical 20-year timescale 

for new materials and a mark of success for the techniques and approach to materials research and 

engineering MGI advocates.

Image courtesy John Allison, University of Michigan

 

37 Ibid. 1.
 32 

Science and Technology

Grand Challenges 

Technological advances for national security, human health and welfare, clean energy, infrastructure, and 

consumer goods are critical in ensuring a thriving Nation for future generations. The success of the 

Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) in providing a technological and research framework to accelerate the 

deployment of materials solutions in these sectors will require addressing a variety of cross-cutting 

challenges across both materials classes and application domains. Through two Grand Challenge 

Summits, organized in 2013 by the interagency Subcommittee for MGI, the scientific and engineering 

community explored several key materials classes and applications in which to apply the MGI approach. 

The summits held focused discussions on biomaterials, catalysts, correlated materials, electronic and 

photonic materials, energy storage materials, lightweight and structural materials, organic electronic

materials, polymers, and polymer composites. 38 Summit participants included representation from 

academia, National and Federal laboratories, industry, and Federal agencies. These summits provided a 

communication venue across multiple groups to ensure that research, manufacturing, and commercial 

industry perspectives were considered as input for this strategic plan.

Summit participants were asked to identify grand challenges that would inspire and enable future MGIrelated research to accelerate innovation and technology development across the materials and 

applications spectrum. Within each materials class or application domain, participants identified grand 

challenges that are, at present, still aspirational. As research progresses, a subset of these grand 

challenges is expected to become better defined and yield focus areas with quantifiable milestones for 

the MGI community.

Many of these grand challenges directly support national objectives in clean energy, national security, 

human welfare, infrastructure, and consumer goods. The selected materials classes and applications are 

shown in Table 1 and include indications of primary and secondary priorities within identified areas of 

national need.

 

38 The materials classes selected for these summits are not intended to be comprehensive, nor to indicate that other materials 

classes are not MGI priorities. Future workshops to identify additional grand challenges may include, for example, ceramics,

alloys for extreme environments, cements, energetic materials, and gas separation media.
 33 

Table 1. Materials Classes and Application Domains Included in Grand Challenge Summits 

and Their Relationship to National Needs

National 

Security

Human Health 

and Welfare

Clean Energy 

Systems

Infrastructure and 

Consumer Goods

Biomaterials ○  ○ 

Catalysts ○   

Polymer Composites   ○ 

Correlated Materials  ○  

Electronic and 

Photonic Materials  ○  

Energy Storage 

Systems   



Lightweight and 

Structural Materials    

Organic Electronic 

Materials ○  ○ 

Polymers ○  ○ 

 Primary ○ Secondary

The summits generated a brief overview of the role and importance of each specified materials class or 

application as well as a corresponding list of the scientific or technical challenges facing the community

that MGI could help solve. Several common or cross-sector themes emerged from the summits, including

(1) support for the culture change needed to embrace the deeper integration of experiment and modeling 

at all stages of the materials development continuum, (2) integration of tools at multiple length and 

timescales, (3) access to and curation of data and material samples, (4) linking discovery and development 

with manufacturing processes, and (5) education in both simulation and experiment for the next 

generation workforce.

The remainder of this chapter comprises the output generated by the summits and approved by the 

session chairs to be representative of the opinions of the workshop participants.

Biomaterials

The field of biomaterials has undergone major transformations over the past two decades. Fifty years 

ago, the only materials used in biomedical applications were largely already known from other technology 

applications, including, for example, metals and polymers used to reconstruct diseased joints or replace 

segments of large blood vessels. Today, the field encompasses not only areas in which the primary 

objective is to repair human tissues, but also biomimicry, in which synthetic structures are created by 
 34 

imitating biological materials, and biological systems to synthesize useful materials. Biomaterials remain 

a multibillion-dollar industry that saves lives and enhances human welfare. 

In the MGI context, four distinct directions should be pursued to benefit both national and global interests 

in health, energy, and sustainability: (1) bioactive biomaterials for regenerating human tissues and 

organs; (2) bioinspired materials that transduct energy the same way muscles do, self-assemble into 

hierarchical structures with currently unknown properties, repair themselves, or adapt to their 

environment; (3) biofabricated materials that involve harnessing biology to make materials, especially 

with new capabilities emerging for genetic manipulation of cells; and (4) materials to interface with 

biology for the discovery of new materials that can interrogate or modulate the functions of biological 

systems, such as bacteria or stem cells, in applications that include sensing, regeneration, drug discovery, 

or fuel production. These four areas are a rich source of new sustainable technologies for economic 

competitiveness. The following is a list of some of the MGI-relevant grand challenges for biomaterials:

 Develop theoretical and modeling tools across length and timescales.

 Accelerate the development of dynamic self-assembly of materials and harness biology for 

materials synthesis and fabrication.

 Design materials that form three-dimensional (3D) self-assembling functional objects with 

chemistry that mimics the fidelity of Watson-Crick pairing (i.e., a non-DNA DNA).

 Utilize bioactive materials for regenerative medicine.

 Create materials that control the functions of living systems (or vice versa).

 Develop strategies to obtain chemically sequenced synthetic polymers.

 Develop strategies to create emergent properties in materials.

 Develop tools for nondestructive structural characterization of biomaterials at varying scales to 

discover links to function.

Catalysts

A catalyst is a reactive material in which the active site as well as its working environment is critical to 

performance and selectivity of desired products. Catalysts are an enabling technology critical to many 

U.S. industrial sectors including energy, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. For example, the development 

of a catalyst that splits water efficiently and cheaply on commercial scales would revolutionize the energy 

industry and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. What follows are grand challenges that would 

enable the vision of significantly decreasing the time and cost involved in the discovery and deployment 

of new catalysts:

 Develop modeling tools that go beyond what fundamental theory (e.g., density functional theory) 

can do, reach longer length and timescales with higher accuracy, and represent complex 

environments and reaction networks.

 Enable better catalysis science by experimental and computational definitions of active sites and 

their functions, while accelerating applications. 
 35 

 Develop advanced or new in situ spectroscopic and microscopic techniques for evaluating catalyst 

structure and properties under real operating conditions. 

 Create and implement an open-access database for catalysts, catalytic rate, and thermochemical 

data.

 Create new synthesis strategies that enable catalyst designs, incorporate multiple functions 

defined at the molecular level, and can be applied at all levels from the laboratory through scaleup and commercialization. 

 Develop tools to utilize thermodynamic and phase diagram information or data mining of 

literature to suggest appropriate synthesis techniques, conditions, and precursor materials. 

 Establish materials and testing standards for evaluating and reporting catalytic performance (e.g., 

time of flight) and characterization protocols (e.g., surface area measurements), and verifying 

identification of materials. 

Polymer Composites

Due to their highly specific mechanical properties, polymer composite materials originally were developed 

for aerospace applications. These materials now are experiencing rapid commercialization in other 

industries, including the automotive and sporting good sectors. Being able to tailor properties for specific 

applications through constituent selection and placement provides highly optimized components for 

product design. This ability to “design in” specific properties creates an exciting new opportunity to add 

multifunctionality to polymer composite materials, thus enabling unique product designs that efficiently 

combine mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, and/or magnetic performance. What follows are the 

major scientific and technical challenges relevant to MGI identified in the polymer composite field:

 Image a 3,500 cubic centimeter (cm3) cube of a composite component fully in 3D with resolution 

at the level of, for example, constituents, orientation, and distribution.

 Develop measurements and models to determine non-equilibrium, polymer molecular mass, and 

chemical functionality changes during cure in a 3D component.

 Develop an open, curated database of composite test and simulation data.

 Perform “reactive molecular dynamic simulations” in which chemical bonds are allowed to break 

and form as needed to predict ultimate properties.

 Quantitatively and more realistically describe microstructure by including variations in local 

stoichiometry, defect morphology and distributions, and composition gradients.

 Predict onset and propagation of damage with a specified confidence interval through accurate 

modeling.

 Capture all processing-relevant phenomena (including uncertainty) in multi-physics/chemistry 

kinetic models.

 Measure properties and their variations at all relevant length and timescales, from individual 

atoms to macroscale, using rapid experimental techniques.
 36 

 Model the evolution of residual thermal strain, particularly for the case of very high modulus 

carbon fibers.

Correlated Materials 

Many recently discovered materials for new and emerging technologies have extraordinary properties 

that result from the interactions of electrons, which are part of the materials’ atomic structure. Examples 

of these correlated electron materials include high-temperature superconductors, spintronic materials, 

magnetic materials, giant magnetoresistance materials, and topological insulators. Understanding and 

predicting the behavior of these materials require theory and models that go beyond simple consideration 

of electrons as non-interacting, single entities. MGI offers the potential for bringing these materials to 

the same level of predictability as conventional semiconductors, opening new opportunities for use of 

these materials in solutions to some of the Nation’s major technological challenges. Specific grand 

challenges on the path to these goals include:

 Rapidly survey these materials using tools that incorporate correlation effects to produce trends 

in formation energies, structure, and excitations. 

 Use multivariable optimization techniques to enable guided synthesis of new materials classes.

 Model correlated materials’ structure and growth. 

 Develop sub-10 nanometer (nm) device fabrication capabilities, looking toward a nano-3D printer 

in the long term. 

 Model complex devices using system models that integrate from the nanoscale upward, bridging 

scales and methodologies. 

 Integrate simulation and experiments, particularly at large user facilities where some experiments 

generate large, four-dimensional data sets. 

 Create new devices by controlling correlated phenomena, taking advantage of opportunities in 

interface engineering in oxides, nanoscale control of electrochemistry, and defect engineering for 

nonlinear memory devices. 

Electronic and Photonic Materials

Devices and components produced by the electronics and photonics industries are crucial to almost any 

application from national security to energy to human welfare. While the sophistication and scale of the 

electronics and photonics industries are exceptional, improvements to electronic and photonic materials, 

as well as to the manufacturing processes used to produce devices, are necessary to support continued 

performance improvements and domestic technology leadership. Successfully addressing the following 

grand challenges would support more rapid advancement in electronics and photonics and drive resulting 

improvements across a wide range of systems and applications:

 Predict excited states, transport, and non-equilibrium structures in electronic materials.
 37 

 Demonstrate highly accurate theories and methods for modeling electrical or optical properties 

of materials in structures smaller than 10 nm.

 Establish prediction models of full-device, emergent, or system properties using inputs from 

material properties, modes of integration, processing history, structural or defect attributes, and 

spatial or geometric features.

 Develop models and validate data to enable transition from bench-type design to design of a 

fabricated component with existing equipment.

 Implement tools that progressively validate, and render transparent, materials-centric databases 

(i.e., facilitating understanding rather than providing data).

 Model and predict the properties of a device, circuit, or electronic system at production scale 

using information only obtained at research scale.

 Model and predict the part-to-part variability of production devices as a function of material 

features and processing.

Energy Storage Systems

The need for reliable energy storage transcends boundaries separating private, governmental, and 

military sectors and is vital to the national well-being. Applications are numerous and broad; energy 

storage devices encompass massive and sessile equipment for factory and residential needs, as well as 

small, light, and portable devices for electric vehicles, medical devices, and other applications. Rapid and 

efficient charging and charge stability within the storage media are defining characteristics of advanced 

systems. The rate at which charge is released is an equally important characteristic with fast-release 

capacitors existing at one end of the spectrum, batteries at the other end, and supercapacitors in 

between. Understanding and manipulating the role of materials and interfaces in charge acceptance, 

transport, and release are driving research for all systems.

During the MGI Grand Challenges Summit, participants identified battery research as the most pressing 

and proposed the following grand challenges:

 Enable stable new battery systems with high-energy density by elucidating bulk and interfacial 

reaction mechanisms for all plausible electrolytes including solids. Establish this knowledge base 

for five volt systems within five years.

 Identify and quantify low-rate degradation mechanisms that determine long-term failure modes 

to speed the confident implementation of new materials and new battery system designs.

 Accelerate synthesis of new materials and their incorporation into battery systems by advancing 

the breadth and capability of prediction tools; specifically, emphasize computational tools for 

inorganic chemistry and informatics, as well as the ability to calculate Pourbaix-like diagrams that 

include kinetics.
 38 

Other specific goals also were proposed:

 Enable discovery and design of new metal anodes.

 Link inherent physical and electrochemical materials properties.

 Develop prediction and design tools that account for additives and trace impurities.

 Enable discovery and design of a nonflammable, yet high performance electrolyte.

 Enable more stable aqueous systems for three volt aqueous batteries.

Lightweight and Structural Materials

The automotive, aerospace, heavy machinery, shipbuilding, rail, home appliance, and construction 

industrial sectors contribute nearly a half-trillion dollars to the annual U.S. gross domestic product.39 All 

of these sectors depend on improved and affordable lightweight and structural materials for product 

differentiation and economic competitiveness. The following are representative, aspirational goals that, 

if achieved, will provide significant advances in the ability to predictively model the continuum in 

lightweight and structural materials:

 Quantitatively predict the corrosion behavior of any metal alloy and predict its influence on 

properties.

 Demonstrate the ability to fully characterize the microstructure in one cm3 of a complex 

engineering alloy within one week.

 Establish an integrated experimental and modeling approach to nondestructively map in 3D the 

full tensorial residual stress field in a component with 10 millimeter resolution over a volume of 

10 cm3, including depths up to one centimeter (cm), within one day.

 Develop a means for defining representative volumes for higher length scale experiments, 

modeling, and designs. 

 Create, develop, and operate federated databases and database tools providing easy data access. 

Priority areas include: thermodynamics, kinetics, elastic constants, thermal expansion 

coefficients, crystal structure, electric and thermal conductivity, and plastic properties.

 Develop analytical tools for efficient extraction of process-structure-property linkages from large 

datasets that can be executed with desktop-scale computational resources.

Organic Electronic Materials

Numerous sources project that the carbon-based, printable, and flexible electronics industry could 

achieve an economic impact of $10 billion or more in the next several years, impacting industries such as 

lighting, displays, sensing, energy conversion and storage, medical diagnostics, biocompatible electronics, 

 

39 See data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (available online at www.bea.gov). 
 39 

environmental monitoring, and many others.40 These materials enable not only new form factors (such 

as lightweight, flexible, or stretchable components), but also critical new processing methods such as 

direct printing. These capabilities allow short-run, customized electronic systems manufacturing with 

significantly reduced entry barriers when compared with conventional semiconductor fabrication. To 

benefit from this exciting technological opportunity, reliable, standardized, and easily manufactured 

components based on soft materials are required. Additionally, a much more detailed understanding of 

the process steps used to fabricate devices and their influence on thin-film material structure and device 

performance is an essential prerequisite for accelerating the development of this nascent industry and 

further broadening its scope. This needed understanding will follow from solutions to the following grand 

challenges:

 Predict molecular crystal structures and polymorphs.

 Characterize and model material properties and behavior at different magnitudes and 

combinations of length, time, and dimensionality scales, including grain structures and mesoscale 

crystal and amorphous domain distributions.

 Project device property evolution at the molecular scale.

 Create a liquid-phase manufacturing paradigm.

 Develop a comprehensive model for organic electronic-biological interfaces.

 Discover markers for performance instability.

Polymers

Polymers are ubiquitous, both in high-tech applications and everyday life; nearly all industrial sectors, 

including energy, transportation, aerospace, electronics, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, packaging, and 

water management, rely on polymeric materials for critical components or processing steps. All of these 

industries and many others would benefit significantly from the design, prediction, and development of 

advanced functional polymeric materials. While the polymer industry is currently dominated by oilderived polyolefins, new polymeric molecules could, in principle, be created with intricate structures and 

multiple, simultaneous functionalities that approach and even surpass those encountered in biological 

systems. With the expansive parameter space for discovery, development of new materials must rely on 

an MGI-based strategy built on model prediction, targeted synthesis, and fast 3D time-dependent data 

analysis and interpretation. Summit participants proposed the following key challenges:

 Develop mesoscale models to predict equilibrium and non-equilibrium polymer structure, 

morphology, and properties (including rheology), and to design polymer processing strategies 

that couple structure and properties.

 Design the hierarchical structure of polymeric materials for functionality.

 

40 For example: Das, R., and Harrop, P., 2013. Printed, Organic & Flexible Electronics: Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2013–

2023, IDTechEx. (available online at www.idtechex.com/research/reports/printed-organic-and-flexible-electronics-forecastsplayers-and-opportunities-2013-2023-000350.asp)s.
 40 

 Develop strategies to characterize and interpret 3D structure and dynamics in real time.

 Develop strategies to identify, model, predict, and control the evolution of polymeric material 

properties over long timescales.

 Develop computer-enabled approaches to design responsive polymers for extreme 

environments.
 41 

Concluding Remarks 

The Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) developed this strategic plan to present the 

path forward for the Materials Genome Initiative. Drawing from the combined input of the Federal 

agencies involved in MGI and the broader academic and industrial materials science and engineering 

communities, the SMGI has defined the specific goals and near-term milestones that will lead to meeting 

the President’s challenge to decrease the time and cost of bringing materials to market. The multifaceted 

approach described in this plan (enabling a paradigm shift in culture; integrating experiments, 

computation, and theory; facilitating access to materials data; and equipping the next-generation 

workforce) is essential to achieving success.

This plan’s aim is to enable the MGI community, including both Federal and private stakeholders, to use 

these goals and milestones to drive and focus research and development efforts in the coming years. For 

example, the grand challenges presented, while not intended to be comprehensive, include many

examples of scientific and technical roadblocks that MGI can address. Building a Materials Innovation 

Infrastructure and using it to address these and other technical hurdles will enable the materials science 

and engineering community to play a key role in developing solutions for some of the Nation’s most 

pressing challenges in health and human welfare, national security, clean energy, and economic 

prosperity, including infrastructure and competitiveness in consumer products. MGI is both a strategic 

and cost-effective investment in materials research and development with potentially significant 

economic, technological, and scientific benefits.
 42 

Appendix A: Agency Interests

and Emphasis Areas

In February 2012, the Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) was constituted as part 

of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on Technology (CoT) to facilitate a 

coordinated effort across Federal agencies to identify policies for supporting the goals and implementing 

the recommendations outlined in the Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness (MGI) white 

paper. SMGI member agencies continue to fund materials science and engineering research and 

development (R&D) efforts in support of their agency missions and responsibilities while contributing 

expertise and advice in the capacity of the NSTC to further the broader national effort in accelerating 

discovery, development, and deployment of advanced materials. In this section, the agencies describe

their individual interests in materials science R&D and MGI priorities.

Department of Defense

Department of Defense (DOD) leadership considers the increasing emphasis on Integrated Computational 

Materials Engineering (ICME) being promoted by MGI vitally important to affordability and long-term 

technological innovation for future warfighting systems. As a mission agency, DOD is uniquely positioned 

to target relevant engineering problems with multidisciplinary R&D efforts integrated along the full 

materials continuum from discovery through development, deployment, sustainment, and retirement of 

assets. At the foundational level, DOD invests in basic research to explore materials through firstprinciples calculations, development and quantification of processing-structure-property relationships, 

new experimental and characterization tools, and computational tools to include multiscale modeling 

capabilities. Maturation of this knowledge and the development of industry-ready tools are accomplished 

through applied research and advanced development funding, as well as support from the Small Business 

Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transition Research (STTR) programs where 

appropriate. Working with materials suppliers and original equipment manufacturers to help guide 

research, DOD will leverage the important investments being made in manufacturing science and 

technology through the Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) programs to establish transition 

partnerships. This coordination will accelerate the confident implementation of advanced materials and 

systems. Leading by example, DOD researchers and performers will engage with students and colleagues 

to develop the culture and influence the training of the next-generation workforce to fully meet the goals 

of MGI.

DOD coordinates efforts through its Community of Interest for Advanced Materials and Processes and 

with the NSTC subcommittee established to build and coordinate this initiative. The Military Departments 

and DOD agencies (Components) are focusing investments on both meeting mission goals and making 

viable the promise of integrated computational materials design and processing. Reducing the time 

required for materials design and manufacturing has the potential to accelerate both use and value in 
 43 

critical DOD applications. DOD invests in (1) developing the fundamental tools needed for further 

accelerating advances in national materials capabilities; (2) establishing the communications 

infrastructure required to support the storing and sharing of the vast amount of theoretical, 

computational, and experimental data necessary to speed the discovery to deployment continuum; and 

(3) educating the next generation of scientists and engineers in the optimum use of these advanced tool 

sets and databases.

Examples of DOD programs and projects that support MGI include collaborative and complementary 

ICME-related efforts across the Components’ research enterprises such as: (1) advancing the fundamental 

science of computational and experimental methods; (2) capturing understanding of processingstructure-property-performance relationships in tools linking materials scientists and engineers to 

component and system designers to accelerate confident materials implementation from discovery 

through sustainment; (3) identifying mathematical approaches within stochastic and statistical 

frameworks for multiscale materials modeling; (4) developing reduced-order descriptions of structure and 

models of microstructural evolution with better management of inhomogeneity and uncertainty; (5) 

generating and curating data sets, from quantum chemical topology through experimentally derived 

properties; (6) developing sophisticated electronic materials through multidisciplinary and multiscale 

modeling; (7) designing and developing new materials with predictable performance for extreme dynamic 

environments; (8) integrating validated physical models of reaction kinetics and transport into 

computational fluid dynamics codes as tools for the design of advanced electrochemical powergeneration and storage devices; (9) integrating experiments and modeling to create deeper understanding 

and tools for the design and manufacturing of high energy–density capacitors and titanium powderprocessed components; (10) incorporating residual stress considerations in the design and production of 

nickel-based superalloy turbine engine structures; (11) developing a digital design system for hightemperature polymer matrix composites; (12) developing advanced manufacturing capabilities through 

the Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation Institute; and (13) accelerating 

certification of existing materials in new applications.

Department of Energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) has a leading role in MGI to advance research and software for the design 

of matter for energy-related applications such as energy storage and solar fuels; for topics of broader 

national impact that strongly overlap the portfolio for lightweight and high-temperature structural 

materials; and for functional materials, such as catalysts and photovoltaic, magnetic, and superconducting 

materials. Current DOE MGI activities are concentrated within the Office of Science under its Office of 

Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and Office of Fossil 

Energy (FE). In addition, there is a longstanding history of materials research for national security in DOE’s 

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and significant applied materials research conducted in 

the focused technology programs of the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E).

BES supports fundamental research in materials sciences and engineering, chemistry, geosciences, and 

physical biosciences to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, 

atomic, and molecular levels, including research to provide the foundations for new technologies relevant 

to DOE’s missions in energy, environment, and national security. BES’s MGI activity, Predictive Theory 
 44 

and Modeling, focuses on research that will lead to new theory and modeling design paradigms, validated 

through experiments, which will enhance the rate of discovery of new or vastly improved materials, 

material systems, and chemical processes. Activities include the development of new software tools and 

data standards that will catalyze a fully integrated approach from material discovery to applications. Also 

included is research to advance ab initio methods for materials and chemical processes, providing userfriendly software that captures the essential physics and chemistry of relevant systems. Equally important 

is harnessing the power of modern experimental techniques, including (1) materials characterization at 

BES-supported user facilities for x-ray and neutron scattering, (2) advanced materials synthesis that builds 

on techniques at BES-supported nanoscale science user facilities and core synthesis science program, and 

(3) analysis of chemical processes including energy-relevant processes such as combustion and 

catalysis. The program supports software centers as well as single-investigator and small-group research 

activities.

EERE supports high-impact applied research and technology development for a broad range of energy 

efficiency and renewable energy applications, where high-performance materials and processes play an 

important role. MGI activities within EERE support materials R&D through the application of 

demonstrated computational and experimental tools, while emphasizing competitive and efficient 

manufacturing processes and considering the impacts of these processes and materials on meeting the 

engineering challenges of real-world systems. Examples include applying computational tools to deliver 

higher-performing carbon fiber composites from lower-cost feedstocks and lower energy–intensity 

processers, accelerating development of substitutional materials for rare earth elements (REE) in magnets 

and advanced alloys, and researching new lightweight, high-strength alloys and composites for energyefficient structural systems. All of these efforts focus on enabling a wide range of cross-cutting 

technologies for use in industry, supporting energy-efficient and clean-energy products and applications. 

EERE-supported MGI efforts link competitive, scalable, and energy-efficient manufacturing and process 

R&D to controlling and improving material properties, such as through the use of ICME techniques and 

other investments. 

FE supports, through our nation’s laboratories and universities, the continued advancement of science 

and engineering focused on providing transformational fossil energy technology options to fuel the 

Nation’s economy, strengthen security, and improve the environment. The MGI culture and approach is 

critical in accelerating the maturation of technologies that will allow the United States to use our fossil 

fuel resources efficiently, while minimizing environmental impacts and maintaining a global energy 

leadership role. Specifically, the FE portfolio is leveraging integrated, multiscale computational and 

experimental approaches in numerous activities, including the development of engineered materials for 

carbon capture, metal alloys for extreme environments, catalysts for gas conversion, and engineerednatural material systems relevant to carbon sequestration. 

NNSA’s responsibility to maintain U.S. nuclear deterrent capabilities requires both fundamental and 

applied science. Indeed, NNSA requirements for understanding both advanced computational methods 

and material performance under extreme conditions without nuclear testing frequently have led to 

developments in integrated computational materials science. In particular, NNSA’s emphasis is on 

understanding the aging of materials ranging from polymers to actinides and understanding materials 

under extreme conditions, as well as all the fundamental work required to support these missions. 
 45 

In support of a clean, secure, and affordable U.S. energy future, ARPA-E catalyzes and accelerates the 

transformation of scientific discovery into high-impact energy technologies that are too early in 

development for private-sector investment. Applied materials research plays a key role in many ARPA-E 

projects; ARPA-E performers in academia, small and large industries, and National and Federal

laboratories will use the computational tools developed under MGI for advanced materials design and 

materials data analytics. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provides MGI with the unique platform of 

continued understanding of materials for use on launch vehicles and other infrastructure that will be 

exposed to extreme environments. The goals, objectives, and priorities of MGI align with NASA’s 

Technology Roadmap Areas 10: Nanotechnology and 12: Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and 

Manufacturing (MSMM), specifically in the area of computational material design. Determining the 

effects of mission-specific extreme environments on material performance and the revolutionary 

computational molecular and atomistic-based models required for the development of new composites, 

metallic alloys, and hybrid materials with unprecedented properties represents a long-term, but very highpayoff investment for NASA. This commitment will enable the Agency and the Nation to develop futuregeneration materials and build the essential physics-based understanding needed to ensure extreme 

reliability in complex systems.

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) develops pioneering and cross-cutting technologies 

that enable multiple missions for internal and external stakeholders. By investing in high-payoff, 

transformational, and disruptive technologies that industry cannot tackle today, STMD matures the 

technology required for NASA’s future missions in science and exploration and a vibrant space industrial 

base. Within the STMD portfolio, MGI is poised to play a vital role in materials, structures, and advanced 

manufacturing projects.

A major priority is to develop technologies that can reduce the time lag—currently about 20 years—

between discovery and acceptance of a new material by the aerospace community. In addition, about 

$400 million is spent in the process of moving a material through the certification and acceptance process. 

The revolutionary materials needed to achieve the goals described above have yet to be developed using 

existing (i.e., heuristic and trial-and-error) methodologies; new approaches are needed for the design, 

development, manufacture, certification, and sustainment of lightweight materials and structures. 

NASA’s long-range MGI vision is to include materials and manufacturing as full-fledged elements in the 

digital design process. The objective of the MGI project is to deliver computationally guided materials 

design for thermal protection systems (TPS), structural materials, and smart materials, as well as relational 

databases for superalloys, ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), and multifunctional materials. The project 

goals will be to (1) enable cross-center modeling efforts for emerging material systems, including 

multifunctional materials for aerospace applications; (2) define the path for compressed materials 

maturation and insertion through multiscale modeling to reduce materials testing and shorten the 

iterative cycle for materials optimization; and (3) give materials designers the capability to assess tradeoffs between selected material properties of interest and rapid prototyping. Additionally, NASA will 

coordinate with other efforts by SMGI member agencies to spur U.S. manufacturing by reducing the time 
 46 

to market for emerging material systems. NASA will align its activities with materials development areas 

of interest in NASA’s Technology Areas 10 and 12 Roadmaps, Nanotechnology and MSMM, respectively.

National Institute of Standards and Technology

The missions of MGI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are tightly aligned. 

NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, 

standards, and technology in ways that enhance national economic security and improve quality of life. 

MGI addresses precisely these mission elements by providing the means to reduce the cost and 

development time of materials discovery, optimization, and deployment. Both missions are driven by 

industrial competitiveness, with the creation of a Materials Innovation Infrastructure as the means to this 

end.

Given NIST expertise in the integration, curation, and provisioning of critically evaluated data, NIST has 

assumed a leadership role within MGI. To foster widespread adoption of the MGI paradigm both across 

and within materials development ecosystems, NIST is establishing essential data exchange protocols and 

the means to ensure the quality of materials data and models. These efforts will yield the new methods, 

metrologies, and capabilities necessary for accelerated materials development. NIST is working with 

stakeholders in industry, academia, and government to develop the standards, tools, and techniques 

enabling acquisition, representation, and discovery of materials data; interoperability of computer 

simulations of materials phenomena across multiple length and timescales; and quality assessments of 

materials data, models, and simulations.

Internally, NIST is conducting several path-finder projects to develop key aspects of the Materials 

Innovation Infrastructure, expose challenges in the infrastructure’s construction, and serve as exemplars 

for the broader MGI effort. These efforts include pilot projects to develop superalloys and advanced 

composites, both of which are new, energy-efficient materials for transportation applications. NIST’s 

Material Measurement Laboratory coordinates these activities in partnership with the NIST Information 

Technology Laboratory, with broad participation across the Institute. To support this effort, NIST is 

pioneering curated repositories of materials data and models that result from research funded by a DOE 

EERE program in lightweight automotive materials. NIST expects to extend this approach to other 

agencies, both through direct partnerships and the dissemination of best practices.

In order to achieve these ambitious goals, NIST has dedicated $5 million per year for up to 10 years to 

fund a Center of Excellence in Advanced Materials. In December 2013 the co-operative agreement 

between NIST and a Chicago-based team, the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD), was 

announced. The new center will focus on developing the next generation of computational tools, 

databases and experimental techniques to enable “Materials by Design,” one of the primary goals of the 

Administration’s Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). CHiMaD will focus these techniques on a particularly 

difficult challenge, the discovery of novel “hierarchical materials.” Hierarchical materials exploit distinct 

structural details at various scales from the atomic to the macroscale to achieve special, enhanced 

properties. 
 47 

For fiscal year 2015, the Administration has proposed broadening the NIST effort, with investments in 

critical MGI infrastructure. Priority areas include deepening NIST's investment in measurement science 

and data infrastructure for advanced materials, pursuing the development of co-designed advanced 

computational and experimental techniques, and analytical methods to capitalize on the emerging 

discipline of "big data" for materials applications. 

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical 

research. The NIH mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living 

systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens 

of illness and disability. Toward these ends, NIH leadership realizes that advances in materials and in 

particular biomaterials have the potential to make valuable contributions to biology and medicine, which

in turn could contribute to a new era in healthcare. The Federal agencies’ R&D investments, for example, 

have resulted in advanced materials, tools, and instrumentation that can be used to study and understand 

biological processes in health and disease. NIH-supported R&D efforts, in particular, are bringing about 

new paradigms in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of common and rare diseases, resulting in new 

classes of therapeutics and diagnostic biomarkers, tests, and devices. 

NIH supports the Materials Genome Initiative by stimulating R&D in biomaterials development through 

both intramural and extramural funding. For more information on specific topics funded by NIH, please 

visit the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool at www.report.nih.gov. NIH institutes also support 

large center grants, program grants, and small businesses whose technologies or products are licensed or 

currently undergoing Phase I–III clinical trials.

National Science Foundation 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports fundamental scientific and engineering research that 

leads to discoveries promoting national health, prosperity, and welfare. New and advanced materials are 

critical in facets of all these national needs; thus NSF is excited to participate in MGI through its program, 

Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF). MGI recognizes the importance 

of materials science and engineering to the well-being and advancement of society and aims to “deploy 

advanced materials at least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost.” As a national 

initiative, MGI integrates all aspects of the materials continuum, including materials discovery, 

development, property optimization, systems design and optimization, certification, manufacturing, and 

deployment. Integration of materials theory, advanced computational methods and visual analytics, dataenabled scientific discovery, and innovative experimental techniques is critical for the necessary 

revolution in this approach to materials science and engineering. NSF will promote this integration 

through its DMREF program.

Consistent with its focus on fundamental research, NSF is interested in activities that accelerate materials 

discovery and development by enhancing the knowledge base and understanding needed to progress 

toward designing and making materials with a specific and desired function or property from first 

principles, an approach often called “matter by design.” The complexity and challenges addressed by MGI 
 48 

require a transformative approach to discovering and developing new materials, optimizing and predicting 

material properties, and informing material system design. Accordingly, research supported by DMREF 

must be a collaborative and iterative process whereby computation guides experiments and theory, while 

experiments and theory inform computation. Through the promotion of this collaborative and iterative 

process, NSF activities will enable realization of this strategic plan’s first goal: to facilitate a paradigm shift

in materials science and engineering research, development, and deployment methods. To further 

support the achievement of this goal, NSF encourages new approaches to materials education that 

provide students with the knowledge and experiences needed to actively participate in this new approach 

to materials discovery.

Research funded through DMREF seeks to advance fundamental understanding of materials across length

and timescales, thereby elucidating the effects of microstructure, surfaces, and coatings on the properties 

and performance of engineering materials. The ultimate goal is to control material properties through 

design via the establishment of interrelationships among composition, processing, structure, properties, 

performance, and process control, all validated and verified through measurements and experimentation. 

Required new capabilities include: (1) methods for creating and characterizing materials; (2) theoretical 

constructs for understanding materials phenomena and properties; (3) data analytics tools and statistical 

algorithms; (4) advances in predictive modeling that leverage machine learning, data mining, and sparse 

approximation; (5) data infrastructure that is accessible, extensible, scalable, and sustainable; and (6) 

collaborative capabilities for managing large, complex, heterogeneous, distributed data supporting 

materials design, synthesis, and longitudinal studies.

NSF initiated DMREF with awards in fiscal year 2012 and continues to support the program through wellcoordinated activities involving the Directorates of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), 

Engineering (ENG), and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). Within MPS, the 

Divisions of Chemistry (CHE), Materials Research (DMR), and Mathematical Sciences (DMS) participate in 

DMREF. The ENG Divisions of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI); Electrical, 

Communication and Cyber Systems (ECCS); and Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport 

Systems (CBET) also participate. All CISE divisions engage in the DMREF initiative.

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior

Although MGI focuses mostly on the middle of the materials lifecycle—development of materials for 

manufacturing—there are important considerations on both the front and back ends: (1) discovery and 

processing of raw materials; (2) supply risk and materials flow; (3) tracking and fingerprinting resources 

such as conflict elements/minerals (e.g., diamonds, Coltan [niobium- tantalum mineral], and gold); and 

(4) recycling and disposal of materials. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has extensive research activities 

in all these fields but especially in the first two. For example, USGS is the main source of Federal 

information on discovery, assessment, and production of mineral resources, which includes how and 

where to find any element in the periodic table that might be used in MGI research. An essential 

realization is that resources start in the Earth and not in a laboratory or manufacturing plant. These things 

are interconnected. For example, when developing a new material or process, knowing the availability of 

the required resources is important. Metals like gold, platinum, and REE have many wonderful properties 

but also potential supply restrictions, both natural and political. Thus, consideration of the discovery part 
 49 

of the materials lifecycle could influence the research and fabrication pathway. Similarly, knowledge of 

new research directions, such as cobalt in certain nanotechnologies, could influence future USGS research 

directions on ore discovery and assessment.
 50 

Appendix B: Related Federal Activities

Manufacturing 

The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) was launched by the President at the same time as the Advanced 

Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a partnership across government, industry, and academia to identify 

the most pressing challenges and transformative opportunities to improve technologies, processes, and 

products across multiple manufacturing industries. Related activities across MGI, AMP, and other 

manufacturing initiatives illustrate the strong link between MGI and the Administration’s efforts to 

revitalize the American manufacturing sector. Work through MGI will provide cutting-edge computational 

software, databases, and associated instrumentation that will give domestic manufacturing a competitive 

advantage, reducing the time required to introduce new materials and products, and to safely introduce 

modified materials into existing products.

Consistent with the President’s vision for a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, the 

Administration announced open competitions in 2013 for three new Manufacturing Innovation Institutes 

to join the existing National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. One of these new institutes will 

be managed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and dedicated to the development of wide bandgap 

semiconductor power electronic devices. Another will be run out of the Department of Defense’s Office 

of Naval Research with a specific materials focus on “Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing,” a 

rich area of research within the MGI member agencies. More recently, the President announced a new 

competition to establish an Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation Institute, the first of four 

competitions for new manufacturing innovation institutes to be launched in 2014.

In 2013, DOE launched a Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative designed to increase U.S. manufacturing

competitiveness in the production of clean-energy products and to boost U.S. manufacturing 

competitiveness across the board by increasing energy productivity. This DOE initiative encompasses

several activities that MGI can leverage to accelerate the manufacture of clean-energy-related materials, 

including funding opportunity announcements for manufacturing research and development (R&D), as 

well as the development of new partnerships bringing together many sectors, including public and private 

industry, universities, think tanks, and labor leaders. 

Open Access 

The materials science and engineering community, and by extension MGI, will be beneficiaries of the 

Administration’s movement toward open access of federally funded research data. In a February 22, 2013

memo, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Dr. John Holdren directed Federal agencies 

with more than $100 million in R&D expenditures, including those agencies involved in MGI, to develop 

plans for making the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within 

one year of publication. The memo also requires researchers to better account for and manage the digital 
 51 

data resulting from federally funded scientific research. Related efforts to develop a data infrastructure 

that supports curation, storage, and access to materials science research data will build on the ongoing 

work of these agencies as they develop policies to meet the directions laid out in the memo.

Other Federal Initiatives 

Over the last several decades, there has been significant Federal investment in new experimental 

processes and techniques for designing advanced materials. MGI works to leverage existing Federal 

investments through the use of computational capabilities, data management, and an integrated 

approach to materials discovery, development, and deployment.

MGI builds on the materials characterization and synthesis capabilities developed through the National 

Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The ability to control synthesis and characterize the chemistry and 

structure of materials at the nanoscale provides the foundation for experimental expertise that must be 

merged with theoretical, modeling, and computational tools to realize the vision of MGI. In addition, the 

Nanotechnology Knowledge Infrastructure Signature Initiative strives to stimulate the development of 

models, simulation tools, and databases that enable predictions of nanoscale material properties. This 

signature initiative directly links MGI and NNI activities and creates an opportunity to leverage the 

successes and lessons learned by each as they strive to implement predictive tools for materials 

production and manufacturing.

MGI also has been coordinating with the Networking and Information Technology Research and 

Development Program (NITRD), a multi-agency program to provide R&D foundations for continued U.S. 

leadership in advanced networking, computing systems, software, and associated information 

technologies. The NITRD Big Data Senior Steering group works to identify current Big Data R&D activities, 

such as MGI, across the Federal Government and offer coordination opportunities.

Through NITRD, MGI will be able to take advantage of Federal investments to improve the ability to extract 

knowledge and new information from large and complex data collections. There is no exact estimate of 

how much materials science and engineering data exists in individual laboratories and companies 

presently; once the materials data infrastructure envisioned by MGI begins to take shape, an increasing 

amount of both new and archival data may be made publicly available. This level of increased datahandling capacity will enable new research avenues not previously envisioned and accelerate the pace of 

discovery and innovation.

Interagency Coordination

The Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (SMGI) was established in 2012 under the National 

Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Committee on Technology (CoT) to advise and assist NSTC and 

OSTP on policies, procedures, and plans related to Federal activities in support of the goals of MGI. SMGI 

is designed to facilitate a coordinated effort across Federal agencies to identify policies for supporting the 

goals and achieving the vision of cutting in half the time and cost of bringing new materials to market.

SMGI organizes workshops or other interagency activities that inform the Federal Government’s decision

making process on advanced materials. Each agency participating in MGI is represented on SMGI.
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Executive Office of the President

Representatives from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) participate in MGI activities to ensure 

that MGI implementation is coordinated and consistent with government-wide priorities. OSTP is the 

primary point of contact.

OSTP is responsible for advising the EOP on matters related to science and technology and supports 

coordination of interagency science and technology activities. OSTP administers NSTC, and this 

arrangement provides EOP-level input on and support for various MGI activities.
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Appendix C: Acronyms and Abbreviations

3D three dimensional

AIM Accelerated Insertion of Materials program

AMP Advanced Manufacturing Partnership

ARPA-E (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy

BES (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences

CBET (NSF ENG) Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport 

Systems Division

CHE (NSF MPS) Chemistry Division

CISE (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate

CMC ceramic matrix composite

CMMI (NSF ENG) Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division

CoT Committee on Technology 

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DMR (NSF MPS) Division of Materials Research

DMREF (NSF) Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future program

DMS (NSF MPS) Division of Mathematical Sciences

ECCS (NSF ENG) Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Division

EERE (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

ENG (NSF) Engineering Directorate

EOP Executive Office of the President

FE (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy

FEP foundational engineering problem

GCDP (NASA STMD) Game Changing Development Program

ICME Integrated Computational Materials Engineering

LGPS Li10GeP2S12

ManTech (DOD) Manufacturing Technology programs

MGI Materials Genome Initiative

MPS (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate

MSMM (NASA) Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, and Manufacturing 

Roadmap Area 12

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCNR NIST Center for Neutron Research
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NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NITRD Networking and Information Technology Research and 

Development Program

NNI National Nanotechnology Initiative

NNSA (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration

NSTC (OSTP) National Science and Technology Council 

NSF National Science Foundation

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PSED Predictive Science and Engineering Design

PMC polymer matrix composites

R&D research and development

REE rare earth elements

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research

SOFC solid-oxide fuel cell

SMGI (NSTC CoT) Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative

STEM science, technology, engineering, and math

STMD (NASA) Space Technology Mission Directorate

STTR Small Business Technology Transfer Research

TPS thermal protection system

USGS U.S. Geological Survey
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Appendix D: Summary of Public Comment

SMGI received 36 comments in response to a request for public comment on a draft version of this plan 

during the period from June 20 to July 21, 2014. The majority of the input came from the academic 

community, with additional submissions from industry, scientific societies, national laboratories, and 

other stakeholders. Common themes that emerged in the comments included: clarity on the breadth of 

disciplines and stakeholders that contribute to materials science research and development, from the 

discovery stage through manufacturing of a product; the importance of uncertainty quantification; 

sustainability and reuse of materials; the role of industry in MGI; and clarification on the scope and origin 

of the grand challenges identified for nine materials classes and application domains. SMGI is deeply 

appreciative of the thoughtful replies and suggestions provided by the community, which led to 

improvements in the final version of this document.