Building upon the salient accomplishments of IDEALS I, the IDEALS II center addresses the need to strengthen the nation's leadership in materials capabilities in the frontier areas of quantum materials, bioinspired reconfigurable materials, and photonic materials and technologies, with the goal of elevating CCNY as a premier research institution in these fields. IDEALS I previously produced over 120 peer-reviewed publications and trained 27 doctoral students (11 PhDs awarded) and over fifty undergraduates. The innovative IDEALS II research activities are organized into three synergistic interdisciplinary subprojects: Emergent Quantum Materials and Functions; Bioinspired Reconfigurable Materials to Scale; and Frontiers in Photonics: Materials, Phenomena and Devices. IDEALS II researchers aim to discover and design new materials, develop sophisticated probing techniques, introduce applications, and generate intellectual property with profound scientific impact. The program aims for far-reaching societal impacts by educating a community of scientists and engineers to transform the materials landscape globally. It will continue proven interventions from IDEALS I and introduce new ones to produce a talented national workforce capable of leading 21st-century materials research. The program pursues three long-term transformative institutional outcomes: enhancing the doctoral student body across CUNY science and engineering disciplines; implementing schemes to grow Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering faculty ranks in materials research through a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship Program; and elevating CCNY's research standing and leveraging IDEALS II resources and accomplishments to successfully compete for large Center grants.