Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Advanced Films and Smart Packaging Systems Project Summary

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The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Global plastics demand is expected to reach 335 million tons by 2020. A significant fraction of plastics--about 42% of non-fiber materials--are used in packaging applications with many of these in the form of films, and demand is likely to increase further. While the global packaging industry is projected to have an economic impact of at least $1 Trillion by 2020, we are witnessing tensions in the packaging area. These challenges set the stage for creating a most appropriate and timely Engineering Research Center theme: the increasing materials performance expectations such as anti-counterfeiting detection and light-weighting on the one hand, and a global plastic waste crisis for which packaging materials are the major contributor on the other. Hence there is an immediate and urgent need for new approaches that melds deep fundamental knowledge of polymeric materials with an innovation mindset. This innovation mindset will have an appreciation of multiple technical and societal, and environmental considerations that will drive new developments in packaging design and utilization. This is the bold vision of a proposed ERC, and the focus of the planning grant. Four research focus areas have been identified with the benefit of four industry forums (nineteen companies represented) held at CWRU between April 2017 and May 2018. Sector-specific (e.g., food and beverage, pharma) themes were considered but discarded in favor of broad thrusts that transcend multiple sector needs. The research focus areas are 1) Security and Safety, 2) Surfaces and Interfaces, 3) Selective Transport/Barrier Properties, and 4) Sustainability. Each is rich with the opportunity for fundamental understanding coupled with the potential for significant positive societal impact. Examples include (1) the prevention of microbial contamination of foods and the authentication of pharmaceutical compounds that travel a complex supply chain are two pressing issues in need of creative solutions; (2) tactile sensing and the connection between measurable surface properties (roughness, tack, stiction) and human emotive responses; (3) novel processing approaches coupled with judicious choice of materials and significantly reduce diffusivity of water and oxygen for improved barrier properties of packaging films; and (4) sustainable materials such as bioplastics with attention to high value add that can strongly drive adoption. The planning grant will significantly accelerate the pace and impact of the research activities through interactions with multiple industry partners and with several university partners. The Ohio State University, Michigan State University, The Cleveland Institute of Art bring strengths in packaging design and food innovation to compliment and leverage the deep polymer expertise at Case Western Research University. Importantly, the multi-institutional team will collectively educate the next generation of researchers who will be deployed to address the many exciting challenges and opportunities in the packaging area over the coming decades.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.