Unlike electronic circuits, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) use photons (small, discrete packets of light), rather than electrons, to transmit and process information. While photons provide higher transmission speeds and information capacity, achieving directed signal transmission, optical isolation, and switching remain critical challenges with current weakly-nonlinear materials. Despite silicon providing an established platform for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing, integrating many dissimilar materials on top poses significant processing and materials compatibility challenges. This Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) award supports research to develop a class of novel hybrid materials (consisting of two constituents at the nanoscale), which will ultimately form several key building blocks for universal, large-scale PICs. These new hybrid materials provide tailorable optical properties, well-coupled functionalities, easy integration at the device level, and compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing. The scope of the work provides the foundation for a PIC platform that can be manufactured at scale, actualizing the benefits of photon-based circuits, which include: higher speed, lower temperature sensitivity, large integration capacity, and lower costs and carbon footprint, compared to typical integrated circuit (IC) devices. These advances will provide vital new capabilities in telecommunications, healthcare, sensing, etc., to address critical needs in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act through highly efficient device concepts and manufacturing approaches. Furthermore, the research findings will be incorporated into student research training at both graduate and undergraduate levels and education modules for a co-developed course and summer research programs for high school teachers and students.