In recent years, in addition to resource supply risks due to the uneven distribution of resources in politically unstable regions, new risks such as the cutting off of supply chains due to US-China trade friction and the COVID-19 pandemic are emerging, increasing the importance of the idea of elements strategy, which is developed based on the science of elements. Moreover, the functions and roles required of materials are becoming more advanced and diverse as a result of the advance of the knowledge-intensive society, and the building of research bases for creating new substances and new materials that have innovative features is required.
A growing amount of research is being carried out that is focusing on the reduction of the amount of rare earth elements used, element replacement, and the improvement of performance that has conventionally been based on the stable phase and the combinations of limited numbers of elements. At the same time, with the advancement and diversification of functions and roles required of materials, the dual existence of innovative functions and conflicting functions is being sought, and towards this end, there is an increasing necessity for the opening up of the unexplored space of multi-element, composite, and metastable-phase materials. Since the combination of elements making up substances is practically unlimited, developing strategic initiatives for efficiently advancing materials exploration and creating materials with new functionality are important, while, at the same time, turning back to elemental science to further understanding of the roles of elements and the interaction between elements.
In addition to the fusion of materials creation, computational science, and analysis evaluation that was carried out in past elements strategies, this Target aims at efficiently opening up unexplored exploration space of materials with multi-element, composite, and metastable phases through the active incorporation of data science methodologies, advanced measurement technology, and so on, and at the world-leading advancement of elemental science that utilizes the interaction between elements.
Office for Basic Research Projects, Basic Research Promotion Division, Research Promotion Bureau