International Materials Resource Registries WG

Status and Current Activities

• This WG's term has finished; a summary of our output was presented at P11 (Berlin)
• We are finalizing the final Working Group Report, and we are requesting comments from the WG in advance of submission to the secretariat.

About this Working Group

As a domain, Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is exceptionally broad and interdisciplinary with its origins most directly from metallurgy, ceramics and polymer science, but also with important ties to other disciplines such as physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, geology, electronics, optics, and biology. As a global community, MSE is expanding rapidly worldwide through the establishment of large, multi-institutional academic research centers, government labs, industrial consortia, and computing facilities. MSE researchers often need to answer complex questions such as “What structural properties and processing methods are required to develop new lightweight materials that significantly improve fuel efficiency yet meet safety standards satisfied by traditional materials in use today?” To this end we have seen the creation of programs such as the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) in the US that aim to decrease the cost and time to develop new materials by a factor of two through more effective discovery, access, and interoperability of experimental and simulation data. However, finding the latest materials data and resources to answer such questions amidst this rich diversity and accelerated growth is an increasingly difficult and time-consuming endeavor.

In response, the RDA/CODATA Materials Data, Infrastructure, and Interoperability Interest Group (MDII IG; co-chairs James Warren, NIST, and Laura Bartolo, Northwestern University) in collaboration with materials science professional societies, proposes to create its first Working Group focused on developing the metadata standards required to establish a network of

International Materials Resource Registries (IMRR) in key sub-domains and regions.

Developing a successful international materials science resource registry requires a combination of technical and political process. As an outgrowth to discussions held in MDII IG working sessions and based on knowledge of the materials community, MDII IG proposes core members for its Working Group. The core members would be comprised of “doers” in the materials and cognate communities to identify those in their organizations who need to be involved.  More details are available in the draft Case Statement.

Link to the TAB Review