The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced June 24 that it plans to establish a new Advanced Materials Center of Excellence to facilitate collaborations between NIST and researchers from academia and industry on advanced materials development.

The planned center, which NIST expects to fund at approximately $25 million over five years, will emphasize innovations in measurement technology, modeling, simulation, and data and informatics tools related to advanced materials. NIST plans to hold a competition this summer to select an organization to host the new center.

Soft materials such as complex polymers pose particular problems for theory and modeling. This molecular dynamics simulation done at NIST shows interactions in a polymer mixture as it solidifies. The work has applications in fields as diverse as protein preservation, batteries and polymer nanocomposites. Image credit: Douglas/NIST

The center will play a major role in NIST's support for the President's Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), which was launched two years ago.* The MGI is a multiagency effort in materials research with a goal of cutting development times in half while reducing the cost of discovering, engineering and deploying new advanced materials.

Typically, it takes 10 to 20 years for a new material to go from initial research to first use. Advanced materials and products, from the tough new glasses used for smartphone screens to new biomaterials to repair damaged tissues and organs in the body, are critical for the United States to get to market first in order to fuel innovation, create jobs and spur economic growth.

The President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced June 24 a series of new initiatives in support of the MGI, including the planned NIST center of excellence. See: "Two Years Later, Bold New Steps for the Materials Genome Initiative" at www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/24/two-years-later-bold-new-steps-materials-genome-initiative.

* For more on the Materials Genome Initiative, see www.whitehouse.gov/mgi.