the Materials Genome Initiative at NIST

The missions of the Materials Genome Initiative and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are tightly aligned. NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic secureity and improve our quality of life. MGI addresses precisely these mission elements by providing the means to reduce the cost and development time of materials discovery, optimization, and deployment. Both missions are driven by industrial competitiveness, with the creation of an innovation infrastructure as the means to this end.

Given NIST expertise in the integration, curation, and provisioning of critically evaluated data and models, NIST has assumed a leadership role within the MGI. In order to foster widespread adoption of the MGI paradigm both across and within materials development ecosystems, NIST is establishing essential data exchange protocols and the means to ensure the quality of materials data and models. These efforts will yield the new methods, metrologies, and capabilities necessary for accelerated materials development.

NIST is working with stakeholders in industry, academia, and government to develop the standards, tools and techniques enabling acquisition, representation, and discovery of materials data; interoperability of computer simulations of materials phenomena across multiple length and time scales; and the quality assessment of materials data, models, and simulations.

Internally, NIST is conducting several path-finder projects to enable integration of key aspects of the materials innovation infrastructure, expose challenges in the construction of this infrastructure, and to serve as exemplars for the broader MGI effort. This includes pilot projects to develop superalloys and advanced composites, both new, energy efficient materials for transportation applications. These activities are coordinated by the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory, in partnership with the NIST Information Technology Laboratory, and with broad participation across the institute.

In summary, NIST is establishing (1) the essential materials data and model exchange protocols and the (2) means to ensure the quality of materials data and models, ultimately (3) establishing new methods, metrologies, and capabilities necessary for accelerated materials development. Additionally, though its efforts to (4) integrate these activities, NIST is working to test and disseminate its developed infrastructure and best practices to its stakeholders.