The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $3 million (£2.2m) of funding to support research into the materials used in a range of severe or complex environments.

The funding will bring industry together with national science laboratories to research and develop ways to improve the metals and plastics used in power plants, batteries and other energy applications.

This could involve strengthening, lightening or creating cheaper versions of currently used equipment and materials.

The project will use high performance computing, modelling, simulation and data analysis to solve specific materials challenges – businesses will be granted up to $300,000 (£220,000) to pay for access to laboratory facilities and the expertise of scientists working there.

Areas of focus are likely to include predicting material behavior in high temperature power plants, improving the performance of alloys and simulating degradation and corrosion, as well as research into hydrogen storage.