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Four New Federal Programs in Support of the Materials Genome Initiative

October 26, 2011 at 2:46 PM ET by Cyrus Wadia
Summary: 
Last week the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a letter in support of the Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness (MGI), an ambitious new plan announced by President Obama in June to double the speed with which the United States discovers, develops, and manufactures new materials.

Last week the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a letter in support of the Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness (MGI), an ambitious new plan announced by President Obama in June to double the speed with which the United States discovers, develops, and manufactures new materials.  With NSF’s letter of support, there are now a total of four Federal programs that are collectively kick-starting this Initiative and beginning work on the President’s ambitious vision for advanced materials commercialization:

  1. NSF Looking for Transformative Approaches for the Materials Genome Initiative:  NSF has issued a Dear Colleague Letter with awards to be made in FY 2012 for MGI related activities. This effort is coordinated across several Divisions within NSF including: Materials Research; Civil, Mechanical, Manufacturing Innovation; and Chemical, Biological, Environmental and Transport Systems. Proposals should be submitted between January 15 and February 15, 2012 in accordance with the Letter.  Click here for more information.
  2. DOE Office of Science Beginning New Efforts on Computational Materials:  Up to $6 million will be awarded in FY 2012 for projects which address strategic issues in Materials and Chemical Sciences, with an emphasis on first-principles treatments of excited states and relevant processes and electron correlation in finite and extended systems.  Projects may include requests to support software development.  Pre-applications are due December 9.  Click here for more information.
  3. Air Force Research LaboratoryAdvancing Superalloys:  The Air Force Research Laboratory has released a solicitation for a Foundational Engineering Problem addressing residual stresses in nickel-based superalloy structures.  Up to $9 million is available over a five-year period, with award anticipated in early 2012.  The intent of this effort is to demonstrate the reduced cost and development time that can be delivered using approaches detailed in the MGI. Proposals will be accepted until December 17 through an existing Technology Investment Agreement for the Metals Affordability Initiative.
  4. ONR Isuing a Basic Research Challenge in Materials:  The focus of this challenge is in the integration of analysis with materials research to improve the prediction and optimization of materials properties through new approaches to modeling material characteristics. Up to $7M over 5 years will be awarded by December 2011.  Click here for more information.


Cyrus Wadia is Assistant Director for Clean Energy and Materials R&D at OSTP