Support Standards & Industry

The NIST Center for Neutron Research

• Research at the NCNR supports advances in products and technologies across many sectors, including plastics, biotherapeutics, data storage, automotive, microelectronics, foods, agriculture, and more. Much of this work is performed in direct collaboration with industrial scientists and their academic partners. Work at the NCNR has led to more than 9,300 scientific publications since the facility began operating. A recent economic-impact study identified over 1,500 U.S. patents based on research conducted at U.S. federal neutron scattering facilities, demonstrating that neutron-based research has contributed not only to scientific understanding, but also to technological innovation with practical applications. These facts show that NCNR-driven advances in neutron measurement science have helped strengthen both U.S. research and the wider innovation ecosystem.

• The NCNR has formed collaborations with universities, industry, and other government agencies to help fund, design, and operate advanced instruments that it could not have developed as quickly on its own. These alliances have also brought in new scientific questions, pushing the NCNR to improve the sensitivity, resolution, and range of experiments it can support.

• nSoft, an NCNR partnership program for industry launched in 2012, has expanded the impact of neutron methods in soft materials industries such as plastics, composites, and biopharmaceuticals. In 2026, nSoft is transitioning to a new public-private partnership, nMat. The new consortium expands the topics to include critical emerging technologies such as quantum information science, artificial intelligence, fusion energy, and critical mineral supply chains. Together, these programs provide not only beam time, but also expertise, training, and specialized equipment, making neutron measurement science more usable and more widely shared. They also help shape future advances in neutron instrumentation so that they remain responsive to important scientific and industrial needs.

• NCNR facilities help support the certification of >100 NIST Standard Reference Materials (SRM), including those used in the manufacturing of foods, biotechnology, nuclear energy, and metallurgy. Additionally, NCNR continues to support requests to provide measurements and capabilities that support emerging needs for standards in quantum information science, biotechnology, fusion energy, and chemical manufacturing.