Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for translating and evolving nanoscale assembly for society (TENAS)

工程研究中心规划拨款竞赛是ERC项目的试点征集。规划补助金不需要作为ERC竞赛的一部分，但它旨在在团队之间建立能力，以规划聚合的、中心规模的工程研究。该项目将探索组织大型工程中心的方法，重点是下一代能量储存和收集、先进的结构材料和改进的水过滤膜。这项工作围绕两个研讨会展开，第一个研讨会将邀请来自行业、非营利组织和慈善机构以及风险投资公司的利益相关者，为潜在的中心建立价值主张。这将有助于建立最大限度提高中心效率所需的技能和知识。然后，潜在的团队成员将被确定，重点是在需要的领域有既定记录的个人。我们将特别重视那些具有多领域专业知识的个人，作为潜在的“桥梁建设者”，以创建一个相互关联的专业知识网络。第二个研讨会将集中于团队建设练习，促进团队能力的教育，协调目标和期望，并确定任何剩余的技能或知识差距。评估工作将集中于解决以价值为中心的战略和团队分析方法将促进团队和个人目标和期望的一致性的假设。聚合物和复合材料自组装的最新突破为解决当今许多重大挑战提供了机会。自组装材料可能会导致下一代能量储存和收集设备，具有多功能和增强机械性能的结构材料，以及改进的水过滤膜。在100℃附近同时烧结陶瓷和有机物的一种新方法被称为冷烧结，为新的成分和以前不可能的微观结构控制提供了机会。将这些科学进步转化为影响社会的产品将需要不同学科的专业知识的深度整合。因此，为工程研究中心开发一种“趋同”的方法对于加速科学发现的实施以造福社会至关重要。通过记录和评估工作，社区将了解最佳实践和项目结果，因此该项目将有助于解决组成大型工程中心的团队的研究需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.This project will explore approaches for the organization of a large engineering center focused on next-generation energy storage and harvesting, advanced structural materials, and improved water filtration membranes. The work is organized around two workshops, the first of which will invite stakeholders from industry, nonprofit organizations and charities, and venture capital firms to establish a value-proposition for the potential Center. This will help establish skills and knowledge that are needed to maximize the efficiency of the Center. Potential team members will then be identified with a focus on individuals with established records in needed areas. A special emphasis will be assigned to individuals whose expertise include multiple areas as potential "bridge-builders" to create an interconnected expertise network. A second workshop will then focus on team-building exercises that promote education of team capabilities, align goals and expectations, and identify any remaining skill or knowledge gaps. Assessment efforts will focus on addressing the hypothesis that a value-centered strategy and team analytic approaches will promote alignment of team and individual goals and expectations.Recent breakthroughs in the self-assembly of polymers and composites provide an opportunity to address many of today's grand challenges. Self-assembled materials may lead to next-generation devices for energy storage and harvesting, structural materials with multifunctionality and enhanced mechanical properties, and improved water filtration membranes. A new approach to simultaneously sinter ceramics and organics near 100 C termed cold sintering provides opportunities for new compositions and control of microstructure not previously possible. Translating these scientific advances to products that impact society will require a deep integration of expertise from different disciplines. As such, developing a "convergent" approach for an Engineering Research Center is crucial to accelerate the implementation of scientific discoveries for the benefit of society. By documenting and assessing efforts, the community will be informed of best practices and project outcomes, and thereby this project will help address the need for research on teams that make up large engineering centers.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.