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DMREF (NSF) Grant Opportunity FAQs

What is DMREF?

Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity that supports research aimed at accelerating how new materials are discovered, designed, validated, and moved toward real-world use. It is NSF's main vehicle for participating in the federal Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness.

How does DMREF relate to the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI)?

DMREF is closely aligned with MGI, which is focused on speeding up materials development. The underlying motivation is that materials breakthroughs are central to progress in areas such as manufacturing, energy, health, computing, and national security, but traditional materials development can be slow and expensive. MGI pushes for getting advanced materials from discovery to deployment at least twice as fast, and at a fraction of the cost, compared to typical approaches.

What is the main goal of the DMREF program?

The program aims to make accelerated materials innovation realistic by changing how materials research is organized, how data is used and shared, and how computation and experiments are integrated into a coordinated workflow. DMREF supports projects that build fundamental knowledge needed to design materials from first principles for targeted functional properties and validate predictions through experimental work.

What does "closed-loop" materials design mean in DMREF?

"Closed-loop" materials design refers to an iterative approach where theory, computation, and experiment continually inform one another. Rather than treating modeling and experiments as separate tracks, DMREF expects them to be tightly coupled: predictions guide experiments, experimental results validate and refine models, and the improved models guide the next experimental steps.

What kinds of research activities does DMREF expect to see in proposals?

Based on the program description, DMREF is looking for integrated projects that may include: first-principles or predictive modeling; simulation; experimental validation through sample preparation and characterization; performance optimization; and, in some cases, device demonstration. A key expectation is that modeling/simulation is not an add-on, but part of an integrated workflow that drives and is driven by experiments.

Is experimental validation required, or can projects be purely computational?

The solicitation emphasizes integrating computation and experiment into a single, coordinated workflow and highlights validation through real-world work such as sample preparation and characterization. This points to strong expectations for experimental verification and feedback into modeling as part of the closed-loop approach.

What role do data, analytics, and machine learning play in DMREF?

DMREF encourages development and use of modern data-centric methods that can predict materials properties and guide selection and synthesis. The opportunity specifically highlights predictive modeling approaches that use machine learning, data mining, sparse approximation, statistical algorithms, and advanced simulation approaches, as well as data analytics that improve decision-making across the materials design cycle.

Does DMREF support building data infrastructure?

Yes. DMREF emphasizes building data infrastructure that is accessible, extensible, scalable, and sustainable. It also highlights the need for collaborative capabilities to manage large, complex, heterogeneous, distributed datasets used across materials design, synthesis, and longitudinal (long-term) studies.

Does DMREF support software development?

Yes. The program calls for reliable, interoperable, and reusable software tools that support next-generation materials design. It also emphasizes tooling and collaborative capabilities that enable teams to work effectively with complex and distributed materials datasets.

What is meant by "integrated team-based" materials research in DMREF?

DMREF is intended to shift the culture of materials research toward interdisciplinary, team-based work. This means proposals are expected to bring together complementary expertise (for example, spanning experimental methods, computation, theory, and data-driven techniques) in a unified plan rather than a single investigator working in isolation.

How many senior personnel are expected on a DMREF project?

The program expects projects to have at least two senior personnel with complementary backgrounds. This reflects the breadth of expertise needed to execute closed-loop materials design that integrates theory, computation, experiments, and data-centric methods.

What disciplines and research areas does DMREF span?

DMREF is inherently multidisciplinary and spans multiple NSF directorates, especially Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering. The opportunity aligns with collaboration across fields such as materials science, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, and data science.

Why is workforce development mentioned as part of DMREF?

Education and workforce development are part of the program's intended impact. DMREF aligns with MGI Strategic Plan goals that include building a world-class workforce trained for careers in academia or industry, particularly researchers who can operate comfortably across experimental methods, computational workflows, and data-driven techniques.

What award type is DMREF and what is the typical funding level?

DMREF awards are described as grants. Typical budgets are in the range of $250,000 to $400,000 per year for three or four years, totaling roughly $750,000 to $1,600,000 over the life of the award. The referenced competition lists an award ceiling of $1.6 million.

How long are DMREF projects typically funded?

The program description indicates awards commonly run for three or four years, based on typical annual budgets and total award ranges provided.

About how many awards were anticipated in the referenced competition?

The referenced competition anticipated around 25 awards.

Which NSF directorates are most associated with DMREF?

DMREF spans multiple NSF directorates, with particular emphasis on Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

What are the NSF CFDA numbers associated with this opportunity?

The opportunity is listed under NSF CFDA numbers 47.041, 47.049, and 47.070.

How is this funding opportunity categorized?

It is categorized as discretionary science and technology research and development funding.

What were the posting and closing dates for the specific DMREF posting referenced?

The specific posting referenced was created on September 24, 2016, and had an original closing date of January 17, 2017.

How often were DMREF competitions expected to occur (per the referenced posting)?

The referenced posting noted an expectation (contingent on appropriations) that DMREF competitions would continue biennially in odd-numbered years through at least FY2019.

What is the big-picture impact DMREF is trying to achieve?

DMREF is designed to push materials research toward faster, more predictive, and more collaborative pathways to discovery and deployment. It supports projects that unify computation, theory, experiments, and data infrastructure, while strengthening software, data-sharing norms, and the interdisciplinary workforce needed to sustain accelerated materials innovation at a national scale.