Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials

The world’s most cutting edge, highest performing technologies are enabled by advanced materials. Whether it be composites, novel metal alloys, or nanomaterials – materials play a crucial role in enhancing end item characteristics such as strength, high temperature performance and resistance to chemical attack. SMI’s extensive network and expertise with capturing federal funding for materials companies has been core to our business since its beginning and our performance is unmatched. Our efforts have played a direct role in helping materials technology businesses grow and creating the supply of next generation materials for use in many industries.

Since our founding in 1993 we have represented over 400 clients involving advanced materials and have generated several hundred million dollars in funding for materials-related development and manufacturing programs. We represent clients in areas including composites, metals, coatings, ceramics, chemicals, nanomaterials, wood, biomaterials, pharmaceutical materials, electronic materials, photonic materials, high-temperature materials, battery materials, and polymers. We have worked with every federal agency that has meaningful extramural funding available for work on advanced materials including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department Energy (DoE), NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. Forest Service, National Institute of Health (NIH), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Many of the public-private partnerships that we helped facilitate have led to technology transition into products that have a meaningful impact to industry and government.

SMI’s staff includes engineers and scientists who have the technical expertise and experience to become integral partners with our clients in the growth of their advanced materials operations. The technical team is complemented by lobbyists and experts that have had tremendous success advocating for funding and policy to benefit this unique industry. We can work with clients with materials at the basic research level all the way through the technology and manufacturing readiness scales to production scale up. We engage with federal agencies to identify and enable funding opportunities to mature technology, pre-position clients for funding capture, and facilitate business-to-business partnerships that can lead to strategic investment, licensing, and acquisition.