BASF, UMass Amherst, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have established a research initiative called the "North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials (NORA). Professors Todd Emrick and Alan Lesser from UMass are on the NORA advisory board. Core activities in NORA include micro/nano-structuring of materials and surfaces to achieve new properties, advanced hybrid and smart materials, functional polymers, biomimetics and bionics, materials formulation, multi-scale theoretical modeling of materials and mechanics and photonic/acoustic metamaterials.