Access to national laboratories' capabilities streamlined
January 21, 2016 
RICHLAND, Wash. - There is now a one-stop shop for industrial researchers who want to use the unique capabilities and talents found at select D.O.E. national labs in a quest to develop lighter materials. D.O.E. is establishing a new consortium to support a vision of developing and deploying materials twice as fast, at a fraction of the cost, while increasing U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing.
DOE's Pacific Northwest National Lab will manage the Lightweight Materials National Lab Consortium or LightMAT - a network of 9 national labs with technical capabilities that are highly relevant to lightweight materials development and use. LightMAT will provide a single point of contact which will match industry led research teams with specific expertise and equipment found only at the national labs.
"The major perceived impediments to U.S. companies working with national labs are the complexity and time required to identify research and development capabilities at numerous institutions throughout the country, and the difficulty of formalizing teaming agreements," said Yuri Hovanski, senior researcher at PNNL and LightMAT plan director. "LightMAT will provide a more productive experience for companies that want to engage the national labs to accelerate deployment of lightweight materials."
PNNL, in collaboration with 8 other D.O.E. national laboratories, is developing a virtual storefront to showcase the capabilities of participating laboratories. Industry partners will now be able to engage LightMAT assistance through the LightMAT website.
Who's eligible?
Any U.S. company, large or small, is able to seek assistance to locate and use strategic resources to accelerate lightweight materials research & development. LightMAT will help with Lab access and materials development by:
- Assisting companies to understand the unique lightweight materials capabilities housed within the consortium
- Connecting industry with Lab technology experts to establish approaches for using these capabilities to address specific clean energy manufacturing challenges
- Aiding industry to more quickly and easily develop agreements to access national Lab capabilities
- Providing a data repository for industry to access and leverage data and tools developed by the LightMAT consortium for expanded application and implementation.
Along with access to national Lab capabilities, all industrial partners will be able to use collaboration tools and data aggregation tools that are being developed as part of LightMAT. This includes simplified work and technology transfer agreements, and a LightMAT non-disclosure arrangement that allows access to all participating labs through a single document. This means additional cost and time savings for industrial participants.
"It can take as long as 20 years to get a lightweight material from concept to market," said Reuben Sarkar, deputy assistant secretary for sustainable transportation in DOE's office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. "If D.O.E. can help cut that by ten years, the savings and boost to U.S. industry will be substantial. With our national laboratories' expertise in lightweight materials built on a framework of industry engagement and support, LightMAT can put more of DOE's resources to work and have a real impact."
To date, the LightMAT network includes:
Capabilities include:
- Processing & manufacturing
- Computational tools
- Materials characterization
Short-term goals of the consortium include creating a comprehensive online portal for industry access and participation, partnering with at least 2 new industry-led programs per year, and hosting or meeting with at least ten automotive light metals companies per year to describe opportunities for accessing the resource network.
LightMAT is sponsored by DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office, which aims to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions in vehicles. VTO is part of EERE.
For more information please visit LightMAT, email or call (509) 375-3822.
Tags: Energy, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Energy Efficiency
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
