The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $50 M to drive the design, discovery, and development of advanced materials needed to tackle major societal challenges. The Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program will manage these new four-year projects with the possibility that additional projects will be added later this year.

DMREF teams couple theory, data science and artificial intelligence with advanced synthetic and characterization techniques to discover materials and optimize their properties for the next generation of applications including semiconductors, quantum devices, wireless technology, biotechnology, efficient energy, and resilient structural materials.

The objective of the DMREF program is to get materials to market faster and cheaper than what is possible through traditional research methods. This involves seamless partnerships within the DMREF teams and across four Directorates at NSF. The translation of fundamental research toward manufacturing and application is facilitated through valuable partnerships with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Department of Energy (DoE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). As the development of advanced materials represent a global challenge not confined to the US, DMREF has introduced international partnerships with the United States – Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Indian (DST), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to engage world-leading talent.

Workforce development is also a key component of DMREF projects. Students are presented with opportunities for internships in industry, national laboratories, and international facilities. They also receive highly interdisciplinary training that allows them to take advantage of rapidly evolving data science tools and compete for high-tech jobs.

The twenty-five 2025 DMREF awards involve 104 researchers at 44 universities across 25 states, including the first DMREF awards to Boston College, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Moreover, this year’s class includes partnerships with fourteen scientists at U.S. Federal Laboratories and a dozen international institutions.