National Science Foundation
Call for proposals: Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)

Please consult the Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) Program Solicitation on the National Science Foundation’s website for complete details on this initiative and guidelines for the preparation, submission and review of proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation.

This is a joint initiative between the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Recognizing the potential for international collaboration to accelerate materials research and education objectives, the NSF encourages bilateral cooperation between US and Canadian academic researchers.

The world is facing technological and economic challenges, from building and maintaining resilient infrastructures, sustainable energy production, transportation and storage, dependence on critical minerals, and the development of innovative technologies to power the economy.

Canada is a leader in many areas of material development, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, clean energy, infrastructure and transportation, building, and other specialized materials. Materials research advances several Canadian government priorities, such as the circular economy (Circular Economy Initiatives), critical minerals (Canadian Critical Mineral Strategy), quantum research (Canada’s National Quantum Strategy) and artificial intelligence.

The DMREF program offers a unique opportunity for Canadian academic researchers to team up with their US colleagues to build interdisciplinary teams of researchers working synergistically to build the fundamental knowledge base needed to advance the design and development of materials in pursuit of the following goals:

• Unify the Materials Innovation Infrastructure (MII), a framework of integrating advanced modelling, computational and experimental tools, and quantitative data
• Harness the power of materials data
• Educate, train, and connect the materials research and development workforce

Through a lead agency model, the US Principal Investigator (PI) will submit a single collaborative proposal on behalf of the research team, which will undergo a review process by NSF, the lead agency. In parallel, the eligible participating Canadian researchers on the team must submit one simplified application to NSERC. Please refer to the Apply section for more details.

Objectives

DMREF emphasizes a deep integration of experiments, computation, and theory, the use of accessible digital materials data across the materials development continuum, and strengthening connections among theorists and experimentalists, as well as academia, industry, and government. 

The objective is to significantly accelerate materials and molecular discovery and the discovery-to-use timeline by building the fundamental knowledge base needed to advance the design and manufacturing of materials and molecules with social importance, with desirable properties or functionality by harnessing the power of data and computational tools in concert with experiment and theory.

DMREF will accordingly support activities that significantly accelerate the materials discovery-to-use timeline by building the fundamental knowledge base needed to advance the design, development, or manufacturability (i.e., properties relevant to manufacturing, process-property relationships, property performance metrics, potential pathways for scale-up, economic feasibility, supply chain considerations, or life cycle issues) of materials with desirable properties or functionality.

This aligns with emerging technologies, including microelectronics, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, advanced manufacturing, and biotechnology, clean energy technologies and infrastructure, information technologies and high-performance computing, critical minerals and sustainability, human health and welfare, the development of digital twins for materials and of critical and emerging technologies.

Who can apply?

If you are a Canadian university researcher eligible to receive NSERC funds, you can apply independently or as a team. If you apply as a team, your co-applicants must meet NSERC’s eligibility requirements. To be a Canadian applicant or co-applicant on a DMREF proposal, you must be working in a research area supported by NSERC. As an applicant to this initiative, you must collaborate with at least two US-based researchers who meet the NSF eligibility requirements; the US researcher will be the PI on the NSF DMREF proposal.

Each Canadian team should submit only one application to NSERC for their participation in a DMREF proposal. You may participate as an applicant on only one DMREF proposal, but you may be a co-applicant or collaborator on multiple proposals. Researchers from colleges who meet NSERC’s eligibility requirements may participate as co-applicants.

Other researchers and organizations (e.g., from the public, private and/or not-for-profit sectors) can participate as collaborators. Refer to the Tri-agency guide on financial administration for more information on the eligibility of expenses you may incur in support of such collaborations.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

NSERC is acting on the evidence that achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges. This principle informs the commitments described in the Tri-agency statement on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and is aligned with the objectives of the Tri-agency EDI action plan.

Excellent research considers EDI both in the research environment (forming a research team, student training) and in the research process. For Alliance grants, EDI considerations are currently evaluated in the training, mentorship and professional development opportunities for students and trainees. The aim is to remove barriers to the recruitment and promote the full participation of individuals from underrepresented groups, including women, Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis), persons with disabilities, members of visible minority/racialized groups and members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Applicants are encouraged to increase the inclusion and advancement of underrepresented groups as one way to enhance excellence in research and training. For additional guidance, applicants should refer to Alliance grants: Equity, diversity and inclusion in your training plan and the NSERC guide on integrating equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in research.

NSF DMREF applicants must address diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA) considerations in the NSF portion of their application following NSF’s guidelines.

Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern

To ensure that the Canadian research ecosystem is as open as possible and as safeguarded as necessary, the Government of Canada has introduced the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy). The STRAC Policy addresses risks related to Sensitive Technology Research Areas performed with research organizations and institutions that pose the highest risk to Canada’s national security. The STRAC Policy applies to this funding opportunity.

Applicants must identify whether the grant application aims to advance a Sensitive Technology Research Area (STRA). If so, the submission of attestation forms will be required from researchers with named roles (applicants, co-applicants, and collaborators) to certify that they are not currently affiliated with, nor are in receipt of funding or in-kind support from, a Named Research Organization (NRO). Refer to the relevant FAQ for instructions on how to submit the relevant Attestations for Research Aiming to Advance Sensitive Technology Research Areas.

The Tri-agency guidance on the STRAC Policy provides more information on applicable procedures and requirements, including new responsibilities of researchers and responsibilities of institutions. For more information about research security at the granting agencies, refer to the Tri-agency guidance on research security.