2018-2020 Assessment of the Army Research Office (2021) / Chapter Skim
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13 Materials Science Division
13 Materials Science Division
Pages 101-110
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From page 101... ...
MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF MATERIALS PROGRAM The vision of the Mechanical Behavior of Materials Program is to promote the discovery, understanding, and control of mechanical behaviors across a broad spectrum of advanced structural materials through investigations of extreme environments and phenomena that enable active mechanical response; the research in this program is expected to shape unprecedented capabilities in protection, sustainability, and maneuver. This program's research strategy is to address the following three key scientific questions: (1)
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From page 102... ...
The transitions listed for FY 2017 to 2019 do not provide convincing evidence for the selection of high-payoff investments by this program. Level of Effort The Mechanical Behavior of Materials budget of $38.42 million for FY 2017 to FY 2019 is the largest of the four programs in the Materials Science Division, but the higher program cost per peerreviewed publication -- about $258,000 -- is the highest.
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From page 103... ...
Specifically, the goals are to bring consistency to additive manufacturing and understand fundamental phenomena of grain growth and correlate them to mechanical properties leading to higher performing structural materials. Overall Scientific Quality and Degree of Innovation The program portfolio is robust and well-coordinated to establish crosscutting relationships between (1)
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From page 104... ...
Other The Synthesis and Processing of Materials Program is well managed, and the projects described show a clear strategy toward the overall program goal. The highly relevant research projects focused on bringing consistency to additive manufacturing of structural materials and exploring novel processing methods for improving structural properties of materials.
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From page 105... ...
The Materials Design Program is thus focused on self-assembly and directed assembly to create stimuli-responsive, multifunctional materials to potentially enable the future warfighter to adapt to a range of environments or conditions. The PM gave an excellent presentation and has done a good job in transitioning to managing the program from the previous PM.
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From page 106... ...
Level of Effort The Materials Design budget of $30.82 million for FY 2017 to FY 2019 is the second lowest of the four programs in the Materials Science Division, but the "cost per peer-reviewed publication" -- about $117,000 -- is the second highest. With limited funds available to each PM, annual investments need to be more focused to make an impact.
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From page 107... ...
While the PMs are all well qualified for their positions to seek and pose bold scientific thrust areas, engagement with the Army laboratories in pursuing discovery and fundamental science supporting Army functional concepts seems unbalanced. Scientific Opportunity The projects highlighted were uniformly of high quality, albeit only a small percentage of the entire portfolio was presented.
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From page 108... ...
Given the portfolio presented and the focus of the thrust areas briefed, it remains unclear how the changes in the Army S&T investments enacted, with the future Army functional concepts, is currently being supported by the current Materials Science Division research portfolio. In particular, the lack of emphasis on investment in fundamental materials R&D in areas owned by the Army asks this question: Where are the long-range research investments in innovative discovery research supporting the fundamental science underpinning Army functional concepts such as long-range precision fire, next-generation combat vehicles, and soldier lethality?
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From page 109... ...
By having the PMs follow both directorate program planning and respective division strategy, transitions to the Army could be enhanced. Because the directorate investment is relatively small and the opportunities in engineering sciences are large, focusing on fewer research topics with greater funding on those identified could possibly result in greater benefit to the Army through transitions without loss of scientific excellence.
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From page 110... ...
ARO should present this metric in future Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB) reviews.
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