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

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛不需要规划赠款，但旨在培养团队规划集中的中心规模工程研究的能力。到2020年，全球塑料需求预计将达到3.35亿吨。相当一部分塑料（约占非纤维材料的42%）用于包装应用，其中许多以薄膜形式存在，需求可能会进一步增加。虽然全球包装行业预计到2020年将产生至少1万亿美元的经济影响，但我们正在目睹包装领域的紧张局势。这些挑战为创建最合适和最及时的工程研究中心主题奠定了基础：一方面是对防伪检测和轻量化等材料性能的期望不断提高，另一方面是全球塑料废物危机，其中包装材料是主要贡献者。因此，迫切需要将聚合物材料的深刻基础知识与创新思维相结合的新方法。这种创新思维将对多种技术和社会以及环境因素进行评估，这些因素将推动包装设计和利用的新发展。 这是拟议的ERC的大胆愿景，也是规划补助金的重点。通过2017年4月至2018年5月在CWRU举行的四个行业论坛（19家公司代表），确定了四个研究重点领域。具体部门（例如，食品和饮料，制药）的主题进行了考虑，但放弃了有利于广泛的推力，超越多个部门的需要。研究重点领域是1）安全和安全，2）表面和界面，3）选择性运输/屏障性能，4）可持续性。每个人都有机会获得基本的理解，并有可能产生重大的积极社会影响。 例如：（1）防止食品微生物污染和验证在复杂供应链中流通的药物化合物是需要创造性解决方案的两个紧迫问题;（2）触觉传感和可测量表面特性之间的联系（粗糙度、粘性、静摩擦）和人类情绪反应;（3）新的加工方法加上明智的材料选择，显著降低水和氧的扩散率，以改善包装膜的阻隔性能;以及（4）可持续材料，如生物塑料，其关注高附加值，可以大力推动采用。规划补助金将通过与多个行业合作伙伴和多个大学合作伙伴的互动，大大加快研究活动的步伐和影响。 该俄亥俄州州立大学，密歇根州州立大学，克利夫兰艺术学院带来的包装设计和食品创新的优势，恭维和利用深聚合物专业知识在凯斯西研究大学。重要的是，多机构的团队将共同教育下一代的研究人员谁将被部署到解决许多令人兴奋的挑战和机遇，在包装领域在未来几十年。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.