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Think of the infrastructure and architecture of the Human Genome Project, then apply it to the acceleration of our “understanding of the fundamentals of material science, providing a wealth of practical information that entrepreneurs and innovators will be able to use to develop new products and processes.” For the initiated: Welcome to the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI).
Contents of this Post
In 2011, the Obama Administration announced, “To help businesses discover, develop, and deploy new materials twice as fast, we’re launching what we call the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). Over the past five years, Federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Defense (DoD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have invested more than $500 million in resources and infrastructure in support of this initiative. Current ‘time-to-market’ from discovery to deployment for new classes of materials is far too slow, given the range of urgent problems that advanced materials can help us solve…as part of his new Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, [this] ambitious plan, the Materials Genome Initiative, [is designed] to double the speed with which we discover, develop, and manufacture new materials.”
From the synthetic fibers in Kevlar vests to the lithium-based compounds that power your laptop, advanced materials are so much a part of our everyday lives it’s not surprising that many people don’t appreciate how difficult it is to develop them.
From the synthetic fibers in Kevlar vests to the lithium-based compounds that power your laptop, advanced materials are so much a part of our everyday lives it’s not surprising that many people don’t appreciate how difficult it is to develop them. It can take 20 or more years to transition a material from discovery to a commercial product on store shelves. Those lithium-ion batteries, for example, which are ubiquitous today not only in laptops but in all kinds of portable electronic devices, were first proposed in the mid-1970s but only achieved broad market adoption and use in the late 1990s.
This current “time-to-market” from discovery to deployment for new classes of materials is far too slow, given the range of urgent problems that advanced materials can help us solve. New materials, for example, can enable companies to make safer, lighter vehicles, packaging that keeps food fresher and more nutritious, and solar cells as cheap as paint.
Today, as part of his new Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, the President is announcing an ambitious plan, the Materials Genome Initiative, to double the speed with which we discover, develop, and manufacture new materials. The White House released a new white paper describing the initiative, Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness (pdf), produced by the Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council.
In the same way that the Human Genome Project accelerated a range of biological sciences by identifying and deciphering the basic building blocks of the human genetic code, the Materials Genome Initiative will speed our understanding of the fundamentals of material science, providing a wealth of practical information that entrepreneurs and innovators will be able to use to develop new products and processes.
The President’s FY12 budget includes $100 million to launch the Materials Genome Initiative, with funding for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The initiative will fund computational tools, software, new methods for material characterization, and the development of open standards and databases that will make the process of discovery and development of advanced materials faster, less expensive, and more predictable.
Realizing the goals of the Materials Genome Initiative will require an unprecedented level of collaboration among all stakeholders, including government, industry, academia, professional societies, and national labs. By working together, we can use advanced materials to help solve of our most pressing national challenges and promote a renaissance of American manufacturing.
“Advanced materials are essential to economic security and human well-being, with applications in multiple industries, including those aimed at addressing challenges in clean energy, national security, and human welfare.”
The Materials Genome Initiative is a federal multi-agency initiative for discovering, manufacturing, and deploying advanced materials twice as fast and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional methods. The initiative creates policy, resources, and infrastructure to support U.S. institutions in the adoption of methods for accelerating materials development.
Advanced materials are essential to economic security and human well being, with applications in industries aimed at addressing challenges in clean energy, national security, and human welfare, yet it can take 20 or more years to move a material after initial discovery to the market. Accelerating the pace of discovery and deployment of advanced material systems will therefore be crucial to achieving global competitiveness in the 21st century.
Since the launch of MGI, the Federal government has been investing in the R&D infrastructure needed to accelerate the discovery, design, development and deployment of new, advanced materials into existing and emerging industrial sectors in the United States.
“The Materials Genome Initiative will create a new era of materials innovation that will serve as a foundation for strengthening domestic industries…with the engagement of all stakeholders in the up-front planning and execution, this initiative will ensure the Nation remains competitive in the manufacturing and use of advanced materials.”
A genome is a set of information encoded in the language of DNA that serves as a blueprint for an organism’s growth and development. The word genome, when applied in non-biological contexts, connotes a fundamental building block toward a larger purpose. The Materials Genome Initiative is a new, multistakeholder effort to develop an infrastructure to accelerate advanced materials discovery and deployment in the United States. Over the last several decades there has been significant Federal investment in new experimental processes and techniques for designing advanced materials. This new focused initiative will better leverage existing Federal investments through the use of computational capabilities, data management, and an integrated approach to materials science and engineering. What follows describes a vision of how the development of advanced materials can be accelerated through advances in computational techniques, more effective use of standards, and enhanced data management. Detailed benchmarks and milestones will be laid out in later documents.
This document is written for all stakeholders in the materials development community — from experimental and theoretical scientists conducting basic research to industrial engineers qualifying new material products for market. These stakeholders span academic institutions, small businesses, large industrial enterprises, professional societies, and government.
Advanced materials are essential to economic security and human well-being, with applications in multiple industries, including those aimed at addressing challenges in clean energy, national security, and human welfare. Accelerating the pace of discovery and deployment of advanced material systems will therefore be crucial to achieving global competitiveness in the 21st century. The Materials Genome Initiative will create a new era of materials innovation that will serve as a foundation for strengthening domestic industries in these fields. This initiative offers a unique opportunity for the United States to discover, develop, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials at least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost.
“Achieving these objectives will help leverage existing Federal investments in computational capabilities and data management, and provide an integrated approach to materials science and engineering.”
“The ability to rapidly share materials knowledge among scientists, engineers, and manufacturers yields accelerated discovery and fabrication of more capable materials, better tools to design devices and structures with materials, and more efficient manufacturing. This knowledge sharing is at the heart of the MGI, and it is realized through the Materials Innovation Infrastructure (MII): an evolving and dynamic accessible framework of seamlessly integrated advanced modeling, computational and experimental tools, and quantitative data.
The MGI seeks to provide access to tools for knowledge exchange in a way that maximizes opportunities for contributors from all of America, especially in communities that have traditionally been left behind. By expanding capabilities and reducing barriers for engagement, the efforts described here will have a profound impact among educators, researchers, and manufacturers. Expanding and fully utilizing the MII requires attention to its physical infrastructure, theoretical developments and computational tools, robust data curation that enables the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and other revolutionary capabilities, and the human genius that fills American laboratories, engineering studios, and industrial shop floors.” (1)
This new Materials Innovation Infrastructure (MII) will leverage advances in materials modeling, computing, and communications to accelerate advanced materials design and deployment in the United States across many fields. More widespread implementation of advanced materials will contribute to new products with enhanced functionality, and potentially enhance U.S. global competitiveness. Major advances in theory and modeling have led to a remarkable opportunity for the use of computational simulation in predicting the behavior of material systems. However, such computational tools are not in widespread use today due to limitations in their capabilities, a lack of expertise needed to employ them, and a general lack of confidence in accepting conclusions that are not empirically based. Similarly, advances in networked communications have led to remarkable opportunities for the sharing of technical information, such as materials property data. This too has had limited use due to the lack of suitable data repositories, standards, and incentives for sharing. A recent report emphasizes the growing importance of manipulating, mining, managing, analyzing, and sharing scientific data .
The issues outlined in this report are highly relevant to the MII, which will coordinate large amounts of diverse scientific information related to materials. The MGI is addressing some of these issues by developing a MII that includes:
(1) accurate models of materials performance validated using experimental data;
(2) open-platform frameworks to ease the development and interoperation of simulation codes;
(3) software that is modular and user-friendly with applicability to broad user communities; and
(4) data repositories built on community standards and outfitted with modern search, retrieval, and analysis tools.
“The MGI has already sparked a paradigm shift in how new materials are discovered, developed, and deployed.”
Over the past five years, Federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Defense (DoD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have invested more than $500 million in resources and infrastructure in support of this initiative.
In the increasingly competitive world economy, the United States must find ways to get advanced materials into innovative products such as light-weight cars, more efficient solar cells, tougher body armor, and future spacecraft much faster and at a fraction of the cost than it has taken in the past. As outlined in the 2014 MGI Strategic Plan, the Nation needs to change the paradigm of how materials are discovered, developed, and deployed. New ways are needed to tightly integrate experiments, computation, and theory. Materials data must be widely shared in common formats, and made easily accessible—data describing both fundamental properties and how materials perform after processing. And universities must ensure that the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs have the training they need to embrace this new paradigm.
During the first five years of the MGI, Federal agencies have been working closely together and with collaborators from the public and private sectors to cultivate a cultural paradigm shift and make technical progress towards the initiative’s ambitious goals. Agencies have established or expanded an array of research and development programs. An expanding set of materials databases are being accessed by thousands of users to mine the properties of hundreds of thousands of materials. And interdisciplinary research centers at universities and government laboratories around the country are discovering and developing new materials, working with industrial collaborators to deploy those materials, and educating the future materials workforce.
A selection of accomplishments and technical successes [released in August 2016] illustrates the progress made during the first five years of the initiative, including:
As the Materials Genome Initiative marks its first decade, the 2021 strategic plan identifies three goals to expand the impact of the initiative over the coming five years:
Achieving these goals is essential to our country’s competitiveness in the 21st century and will help to ensure that the United States maintains global leadership of emerging materials technologies in critical sectors including health, defense, and energy. Learn more from this summary of the new MGI Strategic Plan, or get the full document.
Develop computational tools to assist in the manufacture, design and certification of new materials and processes. These tools will reduce the time and costs to infuse new materials while also improving reliability. This program is currently focusing on additive manufacturing as this technology has high payoff for NASA and requires computational design tools.
NASA funded: Computational materials tools will be developed in close collaboration with existing projects in STMD, GCD,and the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD).
These tools will be infused directly to improve manufacturing and insure accelerated insertion of new materials. For theSpace Launch System (SLS) project, computational tools will focus on reducing manufacturing variability, and part certification to reduce cost and time to infuse new parts.
NASA unfunded: Development of computational tools for additive manufacturing (AM) will reduce cost and time for both manufacturing and certification of new parts, reducing cost and risk of future missions. OGA: Development of computational tools for additive manufacturing (AM) will reduce cost and time for both manufacturing and certification of new parts, reducing cost and risk of future missions.
Commercial: The Commercial Space Industry can utilize computational tools to guide development of additive manufacturing (AM) parameters, decreasing the time and cost while increasing the quality of components and structures. Nation: Development of AM computational tools will lower the risk to US industries of exploiting new AM processes.
October 2012: Project Start
September 2016: Closed out
Closeout Summary:
The objectives of this project element were to apply computational methods in conjunction with experimental characterization and processing studies to gain a better understanding of manufacturing processes and materials behavior to accelerate process development and certification to more efficiently integrate new materials into existing and future NASA missions and lead to the design of new materials for improved performance.
Specifically, the MGI project element focused on applying this approach to the Selective Laser Manufacturing of engine components for the Space Launch System and also sought to leverage investments and activities of other Federal agencies participating in the Materials Genome Initiative. This project developed and experimentally validated thermal models of SLM manufactured components to predict residual stresses and distortion and developed a process control tool for SLM fabrication of engine components and delivered it to the SLS Program.
Computational tools developed under the MGI Project Element will also be transitioned into the GCD Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) Project for further development
The Energy Department presented a live webinar entitled “Materials Genome Initiative.” DOE supports the use of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) tools and methodologies to accelerate the discovery and development of materials in the clean energy technologies space. The approach centers on coordinating research efforts in theory, synthesis, characterization, and information-management, and uses the latest combinatorial and high-throughput techniques in both computation and experimentation. This webinar describes directions in the evolution of the clean energy MGI and showcase several exciting DOE projects, mainly in the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, that have been early adopters of MGI methods.
“Will validated computational tools greatly speed the design of new materials; be effectively applied to ‘real’ products; and reduce time and cost of testing materials?”
In the 2012 report by NIST summarized above – Building the Materials Innovation Infrastructure (Data and Standards) – a few “cross-cutting themes” were highlighted as “challenges that impact the entire community involved in materials design.” As part of our Material Science Innovation Series, we plan to follow up on the impacts and outcomes of these themes since the 2012 NIST report, including:
Strong leadership for community efforts: Strong community leadership will be needed to foster the level of data generation, analysis, and sharing needed to support a successful MII. The materials community includes many disciplines and applications and these groups of interest can be somewhat isolated. As a result, there is limited leadership to support or champion efforts that will benefit the community at large. A cultural change towards a data-sharing philosophy will require leadership to build community-wide support and understanding of the value proposition. This will continue to be a challenge but is vital to the success of the future MII.
Data sharing: Incentives and structures are needed to encourage data sharing. Mechanisms are currently lacking to balance the needs of organizations and the larger community for sharing and distributing data. Both public and private organizations can require ownership of certain results and data for scientific or business reasons. Mechanisms are needed to balance those needs with the broader interests of the community while protecting ownership of discoveries, intellectual property, and competitive differentiators. A reward system for shared datasets, coupled with a structure that protects data at some level or credits data, could provide incentives for data dissemination. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI®) could be important idea for sharing data. These create a framework for identification, managing intellectual content and metadata, linking users with content sources, and enabling automated management of media.8,9
Computational validation: Validation of computational models was cited across all length scales as well as applications as a high priority. Computational validation tools require a long time to develop and are a general impediment to the success of the MII. Systematic and proper evaluation of the data acquisition process (and data) for model validation is another key challenge. Of particular interest is the ability to measure and prove that validated computational tools can greatly speed the design of new materials; be effectively applied to ‘real’ products; and reduce time and cost of testing materials.
“The lack of metadata interfaces between databases is a major issue, along with the ability to combine experimental and computational data and computations from different sources.”
Central data repository: The need for centralized and accessible data is a common challenge cited by all groups and noted as a high priority. Such repositories are currently limited and lack standard formats which makes it more difficult for data to be used by the community at large. Data management in general can be costly, requiring resources not just for generation but for collection, archiving, and maintenance. Some of the general requirements for a central data repository include:
A HUB-based infrastructure serving a large number of users is one approach. In this case users could have access to a standard repository as well as opportunities and support for interacting with data. Similar successful efforts (e.g., nanoHUB) could be explored to gain insights on how to build and effectively operate a HUB-based repository.
Large data sets: The lack of methods for proper storage, transmission, and analysis of extremely larger datasets was noted as a cross-cutting challenge for a number of areas. The amount of data generated and accessible is growing exponentially and this trend is expected to continue. New methods will be needed to effectively manage and extract useful information from these massive datasets.
Data interfaces and interoperability: Effectively using available data is challenged by a lack of open source interfaces and interoperability between databases. Resolving these issues is a high priority for all domains. The lack of metadata interfaces between databases is a major issue, along with the ability to combine experimental and computational data and computations from different sources. Translating to different formats to interface with different software applications is currently problematic. Flexible, common data schemas and interfaces are needed to resolve some of these challenges. Other requirements for data compatibility include integration of multiple property datasets in a single searchable environment and compatibility with commercial codes.
Data standardization: Stringent standards are needed for both computational and experimental data are considered a high priority, including data curation and a data quality index to describe the quality of specific properties based on testing conditions. Standard data formats and metadata requirements for reporting and databasing of raw test data are also a priority; these will greatly facilitate data sharing and understanding of data quality and context.
In 2023, OODA Loop contributor Scott Nuzum (SVP at Chicago-based Innovyz USA) contributed a foundational OODA Loop Original Analysis post – Five Exciting Breakthroughs in Materials Science. Over the course of Q324 and Q424, we expand Scott’s insights into a series of posts based on, arguably, all of our project management and strategic experience – especially for those of us who are non-technical or not scientists in an organizational chart:
After just one interdisciplinary, cross-sector, cross-matrixed, and/or whole-of-government engineering or scientific touchpoint/experience on a complex project – a singular, breathtaking takeaway is always that material science is a fascinating discipline – just super cool and exciting – and the cross-sector, interdisciplinary driver of global, strategic, competitive advantage across all exponential, deep, frontier and emerging technologies.
Materials Science Revolution: Room-temperature ambient pressure superconductors represent a significant innovation. Sustainability gets a boost with reprocessable materials. Energy storage sees innovations in solid-state batteries and advanced supercapacitors. Smart textiles pave the way for health-monitoring and self-healing fabrics. 3D printing materials promise disruptions in various sectors. Perovskites offer versatile applications, from solar power to quantum computing. See: Materials Science
Technology Convergence and Market Disruption: Rapid advancements in technology are changing market dynamics and user expectations. See: Disruptive and Exponential Technologies.
The New Tech Trinity: Artificial Intelligence, BioTech, Quantum Tech: Will make monumental shifts in the world. This new Tech Trinity will redefine our economy, both threaten and fortify our national security, and revolutionize our intelligence community. None of us are ready for this. This convergence requires a deepened commitment to foresight and preparation and planning on a level that is not occurring anywhere. The New Tech Trinity.
The Revolution in Biology: This post provides an overview of key thrusts of the transformation underway in biology and offers seven topics business leaders should consider when updating business strategy to optimize opportunity because of these changes. For more see: The Executive’s Guide To The Revolution in Biology
Quantum Computing and Quantum Sensemaking: Quantum Computing, Quantum Security and Quantum Sensing insights to drive your decision-making process. Quantum Computing and Quantum Security
AI Discipline Interdependence: There are concerns about uncontrolled AI growth, with many experts calling for robust AI governance. Both positive and negative impacts of AI need assessment. See: Using AI for Competitive Advantage in Business.
Benefits of Automation and New Technology: Automation, AI, robotics, and Robotic Process Automation are improving business efficiency. New sensors, especially quantum ones, are revolutionizing sectors like healthcare and national security. Advanced WiFi, cellular, and space-based communication technologies are enhancing distributed work capabilities. See: Advanced Automation and New Technologies
Emerging NLP Approaches: While Big Data remains vital, there’s a growing need for efficient small data analysis, especially with potential chip shortages. Cost reductions in training AI models offer promising prospects for business disruptions. Breakthroughs in unsupervised learning could be especially transformative. See: What Leaders Should Know About NLP
Rise of the Metaverse: The Metaverse, an immersive digital universe, is expected to reshape internet interactions, education, social networking, and entertainment. See Future of the Metaverse.
Bitcoin’s Momentum: Bitcoin seems unstoppable due to solid mathematical foundations and widespread societal acceptance. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum also gain prominence. The Metaverse’s rise is closely tied to Ethereum’s universal trust layer. See: Guide to Crypto Revolution
About the Author
Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence