Our Impact
MII’s ultimate goal is to accelerate the development of next-gen materials for the fashion, automotive, and home goods industries. Since our inception in 2019, our expert research and analysis have mapped the advent of the next-gen materials industry. We have become a trusted knowledge partner for material companies, scientists, brands, entrepreneurs, and investors by bringing important issues of the next-gen materials industry to the center stage and thus aiding in its advancement.
We measure our impact by:
Supporting the next-gen materials industry through rigorous research
MII serves as a first-of-its-kind, centrally located knowledge base for the next-gen materials industry. We explore critical opportunities and challenges facing the next-gen materials industry through our reports. Our research provides:
- An up-to-date understanding of the state of the next-gen materials industry.
- Scientific assessments of materials and white space opportunities to inform and help guide existing innovators and entrepreneurs entering the industry.
- Consumer research on the adoption and perception of next-gen materials to inform brands and motivate them to bring next-gen materials into their supply chains.
- Database of new innovators and disruptive technologies as a resource for industry stakeholders.
Sharing knowledge to better understand next-gen materials
To help create better awareness of and scale the next-gen materials industry, MII serves as the leading knowledge resource for scientists, material innovation companies, investors, and other key stakeholders to gain insights into scientific trends and technologies, the investment landscape, and partnership opportunities.
We provide:
- Scientific analysis
- Investment statistics and trends
- Technical, positioning, and business advice for next-gen materials companies
- Best practices for environmental impact analysis
- Expert commentary and analysis in major national and international media
Convening leaders and creating an open-minded forum to discuss next-gen materials
MII serves as an ecosystem builder for the next-gen materials industry by fostering connections between players to maximize innovation. We create a dynamic network of industry leaders by:
- Hosting events and conferences to address key challenges and opportunities across the industry. Our flagship event, the Material Innovation Conference (MIC), is held annually, and it focuses on addressing critical issues and providing unique perspectives on the next-gen materials industry’s innovation journey from concept to commercialization. Retailers, brands, entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, academia, business incubators, raw material suppliers, mills, and philanthropies are all part of the industry ecosystem that is represented at this one-of-a-kind global event.
- Connecting researchers across the industry and introducing scientists to material companies.
- Hosting year-round events to build partnerships between industry stakeholders.
- Presenting funding opportunities through our investor and start-up-focused initiatives.
- Facilitating introductions between brands and material innovators.
“MII’s conference was the first place dedicated to next-gen materials and an exciting opportunity. The reports make conversations with both brands & with investors easier. Speaking with and getting mentorship from Thomasine, Sydney, Nicole, Elaine & others at MII is valuable on so many fronts. MII is the soft power, influence, and education needed to propel the entrepreneurs in the space.”
Zimri T. Hinshaw, CEO
Bucha Bio
“The value of MII’s role as a relationship facilitator in the next-gen materials industry cannot be overstated. The MII team played a vital role in getting us in touch with the right investors, which ultimately led to the close of our first pre-seed funding round, fueling us with the resources and momentum needed to create sustainable plant-based fur. We simply could not have crossed this milestone without them.”
Martin Stübler, Co-Founder
Biofluff
“MII played a huge part in supporting us to make this [partnership with NFW] happen. MII understands the important role that manufacturers can play in expediting a shift into next-gen materials, and helps manifest collaborations amongst material innovators, brands, and original equipment & design manufacturers (OEM/ODM) like Veshin Factory. It’s great to have this example now to inspire more stakeholders in the industry to collaborate.”
Joey Pringle, Founder & Co-Owner
Veshin Factory
Providing culture and policy documents to other nonprofits
Starting and operating a nonprofit is arduous work—work that not everyone has time to do or experience to draft. MII believes in sharing our resources to help other nonprofits, including, but not limited to, our founding documents, policies, values, and other materials related to culture. We currently share these documents upon request and are building a Resources Library to include these materials for use, in whole or in part, by anyone who wishes to use them.
Further, we hope to improve the nonprofit community by sharing these resources. We believe in developing a fair and transparent pay structure, creating values and norms, and detailing exactly what is expected from our employees and what they should expect from us. Nonprofit organizations have not always operated with these values in mind. We hope that by sharing information among the community, we can assist in making these a standard, and not an exceptional practice.
Read Our AnNual Report 2021
MII assembled a stellar team and made remarkable progress in 2021, despite the difficult global circumstances in the past two years. Our young nonprofit received a standout charity rating in our first-ever charity assessment by Animal Charity Evaluators and a recommendation from Ezra Klein in The New York Times as one of the best nonprofits to support. Our annual report explains our work and how we brought about social good by bringing businesses and innovators closer to each other in the next-gen materials industry.
Read some of our statistics, quotations about our work, and impact in our previous annual reports. We would have never been able to do this without our community of supporters and colleagues. Thank you!
