Advanced materials research facility

The advanced materials research facility in Mississauga is the NRC's first physical research presence in the Greater Toronto Area. The new facility acts as a catalyst to accelerate the development of advanced materials technologies and their commercialization in disruptive new products. Together with industry, academia, and other government department (OGD) partners, the facility establishes and operates a national innovation platform, supporting and undertaking foundational research and development (R&D) to develop new materials, scaling up their production, and de-risking and demonstrating their application.

Hosting collaborative R&D partners

 

Our capabilities

The facility aims to support materials development and commercialization in numerous industrial sectors by establishing a technology platform and enabling infrastructure relevant to a broad range of materials and partners. The NRC team of research professionals and experts in chemistry, materials science, engineering, AI (artificial intelligence), robotics and technology transfer addresses common challenges in advanced materials development and commercialization through research and technology development (R&TD) spanning 3 core platform technologies:

Accelerated materials discovery and process development, including:

  • computational materials discovery, design and process simulation
  • high-throughput materials characterization and processing experiments
  • structured materials and process databases

Production scale-up, demonstration and standardization, including:

  • materials and process standards development
  • materials synthesis and scale-up
  • design and demonstration of multifunctional materials and devices

Materials and process sustainability and safety, including:

  • cradle-to-grave materials and product life cycle assessment
  • health and environmental impacts and mitigation methods
  • accelerated aging of materials and devices

These platforms are applied to clean energy materials, novel feedstock materials for additive manufacturing and printed electronics, and smart and multi-functional materials and structures.

Why work with us

Our primary focus is to:

  • drive foundational R&D of new materials and core platform technologies
  • accelerate evaluation and de-risk adoption of promising new materials technologies
  • enable innovators to rapidly identify and access market opportunities
  • facilitate links with materials users to match promising new and emerging materials to potential applications
  • provide access to infrastructure, data, best practices, expertise, and resources necessary for materials scale-up and commercialization
  • ease transfer of materials technologies into applications in key industry sectors
  • act as a gateway to NRC's capabilities across the nation

This newest addition to Canada's rich advanced materials ecosystem will help unify and support the Canadian advanced materials community by developing opportunities among players across the value chain and connecting them with a network of resources for materials innovation.