Abstract The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) worked with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), to bring together research and development (R&D) collaborations to develop and accelerate the knowledgebase and infrastructure for lightweighting materials and manufacturing processes for their use in structural and applications in the automotive sector. The purpose/importance of this DOE program: ? 2016 CAF� standards. ? Automotive industry technology that shall adopt the insertion of lightweighting material concepts towards manufacturing of production vehicles. ? Development and manufacture of advanced research tools for modeling and simulation (M&S) applications to reduce manufacturing and material costs. ? U.S. competitiveness that will help drive the development and manufacture of the next generation of materials. NCMS established a focused portfolio of applied R&D projects utilizing lightweighting materials for manufacture into automotive structures and components. Areas that were targeted in this program: ? Functionality of new lightweighting materials to meet present safety requirements. ? Manufacturability using new lightweighting materials. ? Cost reduction for the development and use of new lightweighting materials. The automotive industry?s future continuously evolves through innovation, and lightweight materials are key in achieving a new era of lighter, more efficient vehicles. Lightweight materials are among the technical advances needed to achieve fuel/energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: ? Establish design criteria methodology to identify the best materials for lightweighting. ? Employ state-of-the-art design tools for optimum material development for their specific applications. ? Match new manufacturing technology to production volume. ? Address new process variability with new production-ready processes.