The Irvine Materials Research Institute (IMRI) is an interdisciplinary special research program for materials research established under the Office of Research at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). As the cross-campus nexus for materials research and development, the primary mission of IMRI is to make UCI one of the world's premiere institutes for materials research. IMRI has two major goals: (1) To establish and maintain world-class facilities for the characterization and fabrication of materials and devices, and (2) to serve as a national center of excellence for materials research. IMRI partners with the newly established Center for Complex and Active Materials (CCAM), which is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering (MRSEC) program. IMRI operates materials characterization user facilities that are open to all researchers in academia, industry, governmental labs, and non-profit organizations on a recharge basis. The IMRI facilities offer state-of-the-art instrumentation for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and FIB), X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface science (e.g., XPS), elemental analysis (e.g., ICP-MS), and many other techniques, as well as laboratories for sample preparation and materials fabrication. IMRI is the Orange County and Southern California hub for materials characterization services.