Funding will Support Research, Translation, and Education to Advance Socially-Directed Science and Technology Through Sustainable, Socioresilient Materials Design
MARCH 17, 2023
Citrine Informatics, Inc. has been awarded a research grant with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the multi-institutional research project: “Mind over Matter: Socioresilient Materials Design (SMD): A New Paradigm For Addressing Global Challenges in Sustainability (MoMatS).” This NSF Convergence Accelerator grant is $750,000 and part of the program’s Phase 1, 2022 Cohort, Track I: Sustainable Materials for Global Challenges.
James Saal, Director of External Research Programs, will lead the effort at Citrine Informatics, which is a member of the organizational leadership team which includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), Cornell University (Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Swansea University (Chemistry Department) and Station1. The project includes 14 additional national and international collaborating organizations across sectors including academia, industry, venture capital, social sector, government, and philanthropy. This research project is an innovative cross-sector and cross-disciplinary effort that aims to fundamentally rethink, re-shape, re-direct, and accelerate materials research and development towards more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable and resilient materials-based products and materials-driven outcomes. The MoMatS collaboration will engage leading researchers, scholars, and practitioners with expertise across disparate fields, including the sciences (i.e. chemistry, biology, physics, computer science), engineering (i.e. materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, civil, structural, and environmental engineering), architecture and urban planning, and the humanistic and social sciences (i.e. history of science and technology, science and technology studies (STS).
Increasingly, materials infrastructure and systems are faced with climate shocks which have created and amplified environmental damage and injustice issues. Classical materials design approaches as well as circular methods, focusing on solely technical properties, and often detached from root causes, are insufficient to address these challenges. The MoMatS research project will create a next generation multidisciplinary framework for materials design through the integration of emergent computational capabilities, rigorous humanistic and social sciences methodologies, and nature-inspired principles. This project is critical for, and has great potential to advance environmental protection and resource conservation, social well-being and equity, economic prosperity and continuity, infrastructure resiliency, and national security.
About the NSF Convergence Accelerator
Launched in 2019, the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator builds upon research and discovery to accelerate use-inspired convergence research into practical application. This unique program, aligned to the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, funds a cohort of teams to work interactively toward solving grand societal challenges that impact thousands of people positively. As part of the recently launched 2022 cohort, the goals of Track I: Sustainable Materials for Global Challenges is to converge advances in fundamental materials science with materials design and manufacturing methods with the goal to couple their end-use and full life-cycle considerations for environmentally and economically sustainable materials and products that address global challenges.
About the Citrine Informatics
The Citrine Platform combines smart materials data infrastructure and AI, which accelerates development of cutting-edge materials, facilitates product portfolio optimization, and codifies research IP, enabling its reuse and preventing its loss. Citrine’s customers include LyondellBasell, Eastman, Ubiquitous Energy, Morrow Batteries, and some of the biggest and most respected names in the materials and chemicals industry in Asia, North America, and Europe.
For more information about Citrine Informatics, please visit the company’s website at https://citrine.io.
Contacts
Citrine Informatics, Inc.
2629 Broadway St
Redwood City, CA 94063
Website: https://citrine.io
Contact: James Saal
Email: jsaal@citrine.io