Chuck,

You might check with Professor Mike Graham at Northwestern University.
He's a professor of material science and directs an industrial affiliate
subscription consortium referred to as ACTG - Advanced Coating
Technology Group. Members pay a basic subscription amount which is
pooled to support "common" research projects, the results of which as I
remember are available to all subscribers.  If a particular research
area looks promising or of interest, members can also pay additional
amounts for expansion of a specific research project under different IP
terms. The program was working pretty well when I left Northwestern a
year ago.
Mike's contact info:
(847) 491-5436
xxxxxx@nwu.edu

Best regards.
David