The NSF solicitation is now live for the Limited Submission opportunity Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF).
Limited Submission – NSF – Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) – NSF 25-508
Purpose: The National Science Foundation (NSF) Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) seeks to foster the design, discovery, and development of materials to accelerate their path to deployment by harnessing the power of data and computational tools in concert with experiment and theory. DMREF emphasizes a deep integration of experiments, computation, and theory; the use of accessible digital data across the materials development continuum; and strengthening connections among theorists, computational scientists, data scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and experimentalists as well as those from academia, industry, and government. DMREF is committed to the education and training of a next-generation materials research and development (R&D) workforce; well-equipped for successful careers as educators and innovators; and able to take full advantage of the materials development continuum and innovation infrastructures that NSF is creating through partnership with other federal and international agencies.
DMREF is the principal NSF program responsive to the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC’s) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). Over its inaugural decade, the MGI has driven a transformational paradigm shift in the philosophy of how materials research is performed. DMREF is supportive of the 2021 MGI Strategic Plan and its three primary goals, i.e., unifying the materials innovation infrastructure; harnessing the power of materials data; and educating, training, and connecting a world-class materials R&D workforce.
DMREF will accordingly support activities that significantly accelerate the materials discovery-to-use timeline by building the fundamental knowledge base needed to advance the design, development, or manufacturability of materials with desirable properties or functionality. Proposals submitted to this solicitation must be directed by a team of at least two Senior/Key Personnel with complementary expertise. The proposed research must involve a collaborative and iterative “closed-loop” process wherein theory guides computational simulation, computational simulation guides experiments, and experimental observation further guides theory.
Eligibility: No individual may appear as Senior/Key Personnel (PI, Co-PI, Faculty or Other Senior/Key Personnel) on more than one (1) DMREF proposal submitted in response to this solicitation.
An investigator who is a PI or co-PI of a DMREF award based on a proposal submitted in response to the previous DMREF Solicitation cannot be a PI or co-PI for this DMREF solicitation but may serve as Senior/Key Personnel.
Funding Amount/ Project Period: up to $2,000,000 total costs over 4 years