Materials Informatics: The Time For Adoption is Now

Materials Informatics (MI) is the use of data-centric approaches for the advancement of materials science. This can take numerous forms and influence all parts of R&D (hypothesis – data handling & acquisition – data analysis – knowledge extraction).

Primarily, MI is based on using data infrastructures and leveraging machine learning solutions for the design of new materials, discovery of materials for a given application, or optimisation of how they are processed.

MI can accelerate the ‘forward’ direction of innovation (properties are realised for an input material) but the idealised solution is to enable the “inverse” direction (materials are designed given desired properties). 

This is not straight-forward and is still at a nascent stage. In many cases, the data infrastructure is not comprehensive and ML algorithms are often too immature for the given experimental data. The challenge is not the same as in other AI-led areas (such as autonomous cars or social media), the players are often dealing with sparse, high-dimensional, biased, and noisy data; leveraging domain knowledge is an essential part of most approaches.

Contrary to what some may believe, this is not something that will displace research scientists; if integrated correctly, MI will become a set of enabling technologies accelerating their R&D process. For many, the dream end-goal is for humans to oversee an autonomous self-driving laboratory; although still at an early-stage there has been key improvements, spin-out companies formed, and success stories all facilitated by MI developments. 

Why now?

This is not a new approach, many sectors have adopted similar design approaches for decades. But there are three main reasons why this transformative technology is impacting the materials science space right now:

• Improvements in AI-driven solutions leveraged from other sectors.
• Improvements in data infrastructures, from open-access data repositories to cloud-based research platforms.
• Awareness, education, and a need to keep up with the underlying pace of innovation.

IDTechEx have classified the projects undertaken into six main categories outlined in detail within the report.

What are the strategic approaches?

Ignoring this R&D transition is a major oversight for any company that designs materials or designs with materials. The impact will not be seen immediately, but in the mid- to long-term the missed opportunity will be significant. This could be when bringing competitive products to market, developing versatility in the supply chain, finding next-generation opportunities, or generating the ability to diversify a business unit or material portfolio. 

Numerous players have already begun this adoption with three core approaches: operate fully in-house, work with an external company, or join forces as part of a consortium. The external MI players can come from numerous starting points.

Each of these approaches are appraised in detail in the report; choosing to start the adoption of MI is important, choosing the right path is essential.

What application areas are successfully using this?

Organic electronics, battery compositions, additive manufacturing alloys, polyurethane formulations, and nanomaterial development are all examples of areas that MI is having an immediate impact on. The broad range of material use-cases means industrial adoption is being seen from electronics manufacturers to chemical companies.

There are universal challenges, but each application area will have certain considerations, be it in the availability of existing data, the domain knowledge, the complexity of the structure-property relationships, and more.

The final part of this report goes into detail on each applications area in turn, highlighting key developments, commercial use-cases, and notable publications. This provides end-users the opportunity to focus on case studies in their specific areas of interest and MI players to assess what areas to explore.  

What about COVID-19?

The impact from the global pandemic cannot be overlooked. Alongside this report, IDTechEx has provided a detailed additional document outlining the impact of COVID-19 on the development of Materials Informatics.

A large amount of the negative impact on MI players will depend on the fate of their customer-base which supply into multiple sectors; the majority of which will be negatively affected in the short-to-mid-term. However, there are some positives for this field, most notably being the role MI can play in helping to develop a responsive and versatile global supply chain and how it can support computational simulation

What will I learn from the report?

This market report is released at a point in time where the 10-year outlook is prime for rapid adoption. This report goes far beyond what is available on the internet, providing key commercial outlooks based on primary-interviews coupled with expertise on both this topic and numerous of the relevant application areas. For more information please visit www.IDTechEx.com/research/AM.

Market forecasts, player profiles, investments, roadmaps, and comprehensive company lists are all provided. Making this essential reading for anyone wanting to get ahead in this field.