International research teams to tackle infrastructure, energy, and tech challenges
General news Professors Students Alliance
October 6, 2025
The world is facing technological and economic challenges, from building and maintaining resilient infrastructures to sustainable energy production, transportation and storage, and the development of innovative technologies to power the economy. Canada is a leader in many areas of materials development, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, clean energy, and other specialized materials.
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) are proud to announce the recipients of the recent Call for proposals: Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF).
This initiative enables Canadian and U.S. academic researchers to build interdisciplinary research collaborations aimed at building the fundamental knowledge needed to advance the design and manufacturing of materials and molecules with social importance and desirable properties and developing and training the next generation of materials scientists and engineers. Its objective is to accelerate materials and molecular discovery and shorten the timeline from discovery to application. The five partnerships announced today will receive approximately $1.93 million over four years from NSERC.
Awarded projects:
Data-Driven Multi-Element Doping for Optimally Controlled Ion-Electron Conduction
Eric McCalla, McGill University, $400,000
US PI: Miaofang Chi, Duke University
High Entropy Quantum Materials
Alannah Hallas, The University of British Columbia, $400,000
Co-applicant: Andrea Damascelli, The University of British Columbia
US PI: Johnpierre Paglione, University of Maryland
Targeted Design of Quantum Diodic Magnets (QUDIM) for Low-power Applications
Maia Garcia Vergniory, Université de Sherbrooke, $330,000
US PI: Qiong Ma, Boston College
Structural Alloys for Fatigue Endurance (SAFE)
Blaise Bourdin, McMaster University, $395,679
US PI: Kaushik Bhattacharya, Caltech
Multi-Scale Engineered Metamaterials Approaching Fundamental Limits of Linear and Nonlinear Susceptibilities
Byron Gates, Simon Fraser University, $400,000
US PI: Arka Majumdar, University of Washington
Quotes:
“International collaboration is essential to advancing the breakthroughs needed for a more sustainable and resilient future. By bringing together Canadian and U.S. researchers through the DMREF program, the NSF and NSERC are accelerating discoveries in materials science and building the strong networks and talent needed to address critical global challenges in energy, infrastructure, and technology.”
Professor Alejandro Adem, FRSC
President, NSERC
"Materials science holds the potential to unlock breakthroughs in quantum technologies, solid state batteries, structural alloys, biotech, artificial intelligence and more. Through U.S. collaborations with Canada and other international partners, these newly-funded research projects are a big step toward achieving new technologies that can enhance our quality of life in many areas."
Germano Iannacchione
NSF Senior Science Advisor for Materials Research
