The Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (James A. Warren, Director, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA) and the Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS) of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) (Yuko Nagano, Director, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan) signed a letter of intent to promote research exchange between the two organizations on February 1, 2018.
Materials informatics (MI)—a fusion of materials science and data science—is a technique enabling efficient development of novel materials. Following groundbreaking work in this field by Japan and the United States, major MI projects are now being conducted around the world, including in mainland Asia and Europe. NIST and NIMS—two organizations which have played central roles in MI research in the US and Japan, respectively—will work together on data utilization and development of the necessary technologies to expedite materials development efforts.
Specifically, the two organizations will collaborate on R&D related to advanced techniques for extracting data on materials using machine learning, develop data repository technologies to facilitate data collection, management and publication, and develop data platform technologies which will allow researchers to securely aggregate and store data.
Through these broad collaborative efforts, the two organizations aim to establish de facto standards for data utilization policies and data management and promote open science by encouraging scientists in Japan and overseas to join the repository community.
