The 2025 Principal Investigators (PIs) Meeting for the NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) program was held recently at the Westin Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. PREM leaders and NSF program staff gathered for a full day of presentations, panels, and networking focused on collaborative research, student engagement, and institutional partnerships.

The meeting opened with remarks from Dhananjay Kumar, 2025 PREM PI meeting organizer and PI for the NCAT-UCSD PREM, Miriam Deutsch, Deputy Division Director of DMR, and Tomasz Durakiewicz, who is serving as interim PREM Program Director for the PREM program at NSF.

Kumar also presented a session with Saiful Khondaker, PI for the University of Central Florida, where both discussed their successful transition from a SEED to a regular PREM.

According to Kumar, SEEDs looking to make the transition should take advantage of the SEED grant, forge a strong partnership, and show strong productivity. “They need to work with the same propensity as a full PREM,” says Kumar.

Similarly, Khondaker recommends choosing select areas of the PREM pathway and excelling in them; showing strong partnerships; and creating as many student success stories as possible.

Meeting attendees also explored strategies for inter-PREM collaboration, including building a strong research community through purposeful virtual interactions such as student research presentations and cross-PREM peer mentoring, sharing employment, internship, and REU opportunities, and exchanging STEM outreach resources like demos and handouts.

The meeting also included a panel on balancing research and student support, updates on NSF programs such as DMREF and MIP, and opportunities for one-on-one meetings with NSF program directors.

“This (the meeting) gave the PREM-MRSEC community an opportunity to assemble under one roof and to share their progress, accomplishments, and future plans,” says Kumar.