The Advanced Materials Institute (AMI) is the materials research arm of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute (CATI), a state agency created in 1983 by the state General Assembly as an economic development initiative involving academic, industry, and government sectors. AMI represents a unique process in academic research: long-term materials needs of industry members are addressed by university investigators, with federal agencies providing the major source of funding.

AMI is a consortium of four research universities (Colorado School of Mines as the lead institution, Colorado State University, and the Universities of Colorado and Denver) and a present industrial membership of nine corporations (AMAX Inc., Adolph Coors Company, Digital Equipment Corporation, Gates Company, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Manville, Martin Marietta, and Telectronics). The Institute is governed by a Board of Directors with representatives from each participating organization. Sustaining memberships, which do not include representation on the Board, are available; memberships of both kinds are open to non-Colorado-based companies.

The long-term materials needs of industry members provide AMI's research agenda; many items, once identified, become company-shared interests. Requests for proposals, based on the agenda, are distributed to the affiliated universities for competitive awarding of seed funds. Proposals receive peer review and the Board selects those to be funded.