Station1 Awarded a National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Grant as a Collaborating Organization on the Topic of Sustainable “Socioresilient” Materials

Station1 | March 15, 2023 — Station1, a leading nonprofit higher education institution focused on expanding opportunity through socially-directed science and technology, has been awarded a research grant 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”  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.

This research project is an innovative cross-sector and cross-disciplinary effort that aims to fundamentally rethink, re-shape, re-direct, and accelerate emergent technical capabilities in materials research and development towards more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable and resilient materials-based products and materials-driven outcomes. Station1 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), University of Swansea (Chemistry Department), and Citrine Informatics, Inc. 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). The project also includes 14 leading national and international collaborating organizations across sectors including academia, industry, venture capital, social sector, government, and philanthropy.

While materials have contributed enormous benefits to society in, for example, infrastructure, transportation, energy, medicine and healthcare, and computation, they have also been a key source and enabler of environmental damage and social inequities. In addition, increasingly, materials infrastructure and systems are faced with climate shocks which amplify environmental and social injustice issues over long periods of time. 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. This 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. 

This grant will support undergraduate research projects in the Station1 Frontiers Fellowship, which aims to expand opportunity for students that have been historically excluded from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), especially students of color, those who are first generation to college, and students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

This project builds upon a previously funded NSF Convergence Accelerator grant and convening “Socioresilient Infrastructure: Materials, Assemblages, and Systems: International Digital Workshop: Research, Translation, and Education” held by Station1 and MIT in September of 2020 and will continue to advance the model of socially-directed science and technology developed at both institutions.

About Station1

Station1 (www.station1.org) is a nonprofit higher education institution that is paving a pathway of opportunity through a new model of learning and research - socially-directed science and technology. The Station1 model integrates science and technology with humanistic fields and the social sciences in order to interrogate, understand, and shape technologically-driven societal impact towards more equitable and sustainable outcomes. To advance this mission, Station1 designs and carries out transformative education, research, innovation, and collective impact projects, programs, and initiatives in the areas of socially-directed science and technology. Station1 collaborates with partners worldwide, including socially-minded startup companies, established industry, the social and public sectors, and academia. Current research areas of focus within socially-directed science and technology include computationally-enabled sustainable materials design, socioresilient infrastructure, sociotechnical systems in biotechnology and health equity, and technosocial possibilities and histories of the future. Core to the Station1 model is broadening access and opportunity for students that have been historically excluded with care given to intersectionality, especially students of color, those who are first generation to college, students from low socio-economic households, and students who are geographically limited in their access to higher education. Station1 has had over 260 supporters, engaged over 6,000 direct beneficiaries, educated over 90 undergraduate research fellows from more than 65 institutions of higher education, and has and partnered with over 90 organizations worldwide.

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.