| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 14, 2023 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 14, 2023 |
| Award Number: | 2325011 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Andrew Wells
awells@nsf.gov (703)292-7225 CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2023 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $39,794.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $39,794.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
216 MONTANA HALL BOZEMAN MT US 59717 (406)994-2381 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
216 MONTANA HALL BOZEMAN MT US 59717 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
AM-Advanced Manufacturing, Mechanics of Materials and Str, BMMB-Biomech & Mechanobiology, EFRI Research Projects |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) are an emerging class of materials that have additional or unique functionalities resulting from the inclusion of living cells on or within the material. ELMs are expected to provide improved sustainability in material development, manufacturing, and use. For instance, using living cells as (micro)factories would facilitate generation of desirable materials from sustainable inputs, such as the production of biopolymers from simple sugars or waste materials. Currently, the development of ELMs is hindered by limited exchange of findings, ideas, and innovations between academic and industry teams working in this area because ELM programming does not have a dedicated conference. A major challenge is that participants in this new field span many research communities, and thus established conferences only assemble small cross-sections of the ELM community. This grant supports two meetings to bring together ELM community to exchange ideas, challenges, and solutions that move the field forward with the goal of establishing an ELM conference series on an annual or biannual schedule.
This grant supports two meetings. The first is an evening meeting adjacent to the Materials Research Society Spring conference to assemble attendees and discuss the priorities for the one-day summer ELM workshop. The second meeting is a one-day workshop which will bring together teams working in ELM research across the fields of materials science, engineering, microbiology, synthetic biology, as well as social, legal and ethical considerations. Academic and industry participants are expected. The workshop will feature invited speakers, small working groups, and moderated discussions to define priority research areas, identify central challenges and potential solutions, and define the needs of this emerging community.
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Engineered living materials (ELMs) are an emerging class of materials that have the potential for transformative impacts in sustainability across sectors (e.g., water, energy, health). Scientific and engineering progress toward producing ELMs with tailorable and/or stimuli-responsive functionalities has occurred in recent years, along with advances in materials manufacturing with increased complexity and scale. While a few ELMs have been commercialized, important barriers must be surmounted before broader integration into society. Social, ethical, legal, and regulatory barriers to bringing ELMs to society, and potential solutions to those barriers, were identified in a workshop combining about 140 academic, industry, and government agency participants that was convened as part of the annual Montana Biofilm Meeting (Bozeman, MT) on July 13, 2023. The outcomes of the ELM workshop were reported in a manuscript, which is now published (Heveran et al., Matter, 2024).
The key intellectual merits of this workshop were in advancing knowledge regarding progress in ELM research as well as key gaps that need to be surmounted to improve the effectiveness of this materials. This workshop developed collaboration and synergy between researchers in many fields, including mechanical / chemical / civil / environmental engineering, materials science, physics, biology, and ethics. The broader impacts of the workshop included identifying the most important barriers to societal implementation and regulation of ELMs. Moderated panel discussions involving researchers from academia, industry, and government agencies were central in identifying these barriers as well as potential strategies to overcome them. The workshop was also a training opportunity for many students (undergraduates and graduates) and postdocs who were full participants in workshop activities.
Last Modified: 04/25/2025
Modified by: Chelsea M Heveran
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