OARS funding Engineering

The Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation has established the Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) to serve a critical role in focusing on important emerging areas in a timely manner. This solicitation is a funding opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of researchers to embark on rapidly advancing frontiers of fundamental engineering research.  For this solicitation, we will consider proposals that aim to investigate emerging frontiers in the following three specific research areas: (1) Flexible Bioelectronics Systems (BioFlex), (2) Origami Design for Integration of Self-assembling Systems for Engineering Innovation (ODISSEI), and (3) Photosynthetic Biorefineries (PSBR).

Available to undergraduate students enrolled full-time in any school in the United States and its territories, Canada and Mexico, provided: (1) the school's industrial engineering program or equivalent is accredited by an agency or organization recognized by IIE; and (2) the student is pursuing a course of study in industrial engineering and operations research with a definite interest in the area of healthcare. The amount of the scholarship is $1,000. Recipient will also receive complimentary registration to the SHS annual conference ($145 value) and a travel stipend ($350).

The National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), and the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) award grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research. These grants provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake significant data-gathering projects and to conduct field research in settings away from their campus that would not otherwise be possible. Proposals are judged on the basis of their scientific merit, including the theoretical importance of the research question and the appropriateness of the proposed data and methodology to be used in addressing the question. In an effort to improve the quality of dissertation research, many programs in both BCS and SES, the Research on Science and Technology Surveys and Statistics program within NCSES, and the Science of Science and Innovation Policy program in SMA accept doctoral dissertation improvement grant proposals. Requirements vary across programs, so proposers are advised to consult the relevant program's webpage for specific information and contact the program director if necessary.

The SMM program supports fundamental research on the behavior of civil infrastructure materials and the mechanics of structural components in the built environment.  Of particular interest is research on structural components consisting of natural and synthetic materials, their response to mechanical, hydrothermal, and time-dependent loads, and their impact on life-cycle performance and sustainable development of the civil infrastructure.

The Sensors and Sensing System (SSS) program funds fundamental research on sensors and sensing systems.  Such fundamental research includes the discovery and characterization of new sensing modalities, fundamental theories for aggregation and analysis of sensed data, fundamentally new approaches for data transmission, and approaches for addressing uncertain and/or partial sensor data.  Innovative research in nonlinear prediction, filtering and estimation in the context of sensing systems is also considered in this program. 28 28

The Engineering and Systems Design (ESD) program supports research leading to design theory and to tools and methods that enable implementation of the principles of design theory in the practice of design across the full spectrum of engineered products and systems. The program focus is on gaining an understanding of the basic processes and phenomena underlying a holistic, life-cycle view of design where the total system life-cycle context recognizes the need for advanced understanding of the identification and definition of preferences, analysis of alternatives, effective accommodation of uncertainty in decision-making, and the relationship between data and knowledge in a digitally-supported process and environment. The program funds advances in basic design theory, tools, and software to implement design theory and new design methods that span multiple domains, such as design for the environment, for manufacturability, and for systems. 28 28

The MME program supports fundamental research leading to improved manufacturing machines and equipment, and their application in manufacturing processes.  Key goals of the program are to advance the transition of manufacturing from skill-based to knowledge-based activities, and to advance technologies that will enable the manufacturing sector to reduce its environmental and societal impacts.  A focus is on the advancement of manufacturing machines and related systems engineering that will enable energy manufacturing on a large scale.  The program also supports research on additive manufacturing machines and processes encompassing feature scales from microns to meters (nanometer scale additive manufacturing is supported under the Nanomanufacturing program).

The GTE program supports fundamental research on geotechnical engineering aspects of civil infrastructure, such as site characterization, foundations, earth retaining systems, underground construction, excavations, tunneling, and drilling.  Also included in the program scope is research on geoenvironmental engineering; geotechnical engineering aspects of geothermal energy; life-cycle analysis of geostructures; geotechnical earthquake engineering that does not involve the use of George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) facilities; scour and erosion; and geohazards such as tsunamis, landslides, mudslides and debris flows.  The program does not support research related to natural resource exploration or recovery.  Emphasis is on issues of sustainability and resilience of civil infrastructure.  Cross-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.

The GEOMM program supports fundamental research on the mechanical and engineering properties of geologic materials including natural, mechanically stabilized, and biologically or chemically modified soil and rock.  The program also addresses hydraulic, biological, chemical and thermal processes that affect the behavior of geologic materials.  Research at the micro-scale on soil-structure interaction and liquefaction are included in the scope of this program.  Support is provided for theoretical studies, constitutive and numerical modeling, laboratory, centrifuge, and field testing.  Cross-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.

The Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering (HMSE) program supports fundamental research to mitigate impacts of natural and anthropogenic hazards on civil infrastructure and to advance the reliability, resiliency, and sustainability of buildings and other structures. Hazards considered within the program include earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, tornado and other loads, as well as explosive and impact loading. Resiliency of buildings and other structures include structural and non-structural systems that, in totality, permit continued occupation or operation in case of an impact by a hazard. Research is encouraged that integrates structural and architectural engineering advances with discoveries in other science and engineering fields, such as earth and atmospheric sciences, material science, mechanics of materials, sensor technology, high performance computational modeling and simulation, dynamic system and control, and economics. The program seeks to fund transformative and cost-effective innovations for hazard mitigation of both new and rehabilitated buildings and other structures. Research in structural and architectural engineering is encouraged that extends beyond mature or current construction materials into investigations of smart and sustainable materials and technologies, and considers the structures in their entirety. In addition, the program funds research on structural health monitoring that goes beyond data acquisition to include the holistic system, integrating condition assessment and decision making tools to improve structural performance.

The Design of Engineering Material Systems (DEMS) program supports fundamental research intended to lead to new paradigms of design, development, and insertion of advanced engineering material systems.  Fundamental research that develops and creatively integrates theory, processing/manufacturing, data/informatics, experimental, and/or computational approaches with rigorous engineering design principles, approaches, and tools to enable the accelerated design and development of materials is welcome.    Research proposals are sought that strive to develop systematic scientific methodologies to tailor the behavior of material systems in ways that are driven by performance metrics and incorporate processing/manufacturing.  While an emphasis on a specific material system may be appropriate to provide the necessary project focus, techniques developed should transcend materials systems.  Ultimately it is expected that research outcomes will be methodologies to enable the discovery of materials systems with new properties and behavior, and enable their rapid insertion into engineering systems. Proposals that focus on modeling, simulation, and prediction of material performance (even when research is coupled with experiments for validation or guidance) without an intellectual emphasis on design are not appropriate for this program and should be submitted to other disciplinary programs.

The Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program supports research leading to the engineering of infrastructure systems for resilience and sustainability without excluding other key performance issues.  Areas of interest include intra- and inter-physical, information and behavioral dependencies of infrastructure systems, infrastructure management, construction engineering, and transportation systems.  Special emphasis is on the design, construction, operation, and improvement of infrastructure networks with a focus on systems engineering and design, performance management, risk analysis, life-cycle analysis, modeling and simulation, behavioral and social considerations not excluding other methodological areas or the integration of methods. This program does not encourage research proposals primarily focused on structural engineering, materials or sensors that support infrastructure system design, extreme event modeling, hydrological engineering, and climate modeling, since they do not fall within the scope of the CIS program.

The IMEE program focuses on the impact of large-scale hazards on civil infrastructure and society and on related issues of preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery.  The program supports research to integrate multiple issues from engineering, social, behavioral, political, and economic sciences.  It supports fundamental research on the interdependence of civil infrastructure and society, development of sustainable infrastructures, and civil infrastructure vulnerability and risk reduction.

The System Science (SYS) program funds fundamental research on engineered systems that will support the creation of a mathematically sound framework for systems engineering. The System Science program invites proposals that address fundamental systems issues including system performance prediction, uncertainty quantification in the systems context, theoretical foundations for aggregation in systems, decision-making in the systems context, and operation and maintenance in the systems context. 28 28

Designed to help researchers with brilliant ideas see those ideas through to a finished product, the 2013 Sustainable Valley iGrant is a technology innovation grant to help researchers, entrepreneurs and engineers bring new technology or technology-based businesses to life. iGrant applications are open to researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs in the process of building technology start-up companies or designing new technology associated with the biotech or biomedical, MEMS and Nanotechnology fields.

This program supports innovative research on the theories of dynamical systems, including new analytical and computational tools, as well as the novel application of dynamical systems to engineered systems.  The program is especially interested in transformative research in the area of complex systems, uncertain or stochastic nonlinear dynamical systems, model order reduction of nonlinear or infinite dimensional dynamical systems, discrete nonlinear dynamical systems, and modeling, simulation, analysis and design of multi-scale multi-physics dynamical systems. 

This program supports fundamental research and education that will enable innovative processes for the sustainable production of electricity and transportation fuels.  Processes for sustainable energy production must be environmentally benign, reduce greenhouse gas production, and utilize renewable resources. 

The Environmental Sustainability program supports engineering research with the goal of promoting sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being and that are also compatible with sustaining natural (environmental) systems.  These systems provide ecological services vital for human survival.  The long-term viability of natural capital is critical for many areas of human endeavor.  Research in Environmental Sustainability typically considers long time horizons and may incorporate contributions from the social sciences and ethics. This program supports engineering research that seeks to balance society's need to provide ecological protection and maintain stable economic conditions.  There are four principal general research areas which are supported, but others can be proposed by contacting the program director by email at:  bhamilto@nsf.gov Industrial Ecology Green Engineering Ecological Engineering Earth Systems Engineering

The Environmental Engineering program supports fundamental research and educational activities across the broad field of environmental engineering.  The goal of this program is to encourage transformative research which applies scientific and engineering principles to avoid or minimize solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges, resulting from human activity, into land, inland and coastal waters, and air, while promoting resource and energy conservation and recovery.  The program also fosters cutting-edge scientific research for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring the waste assimilative capacity of the natural environment and for removing or reducing contaminants from polluted air, water, and soils.

The Thermal Transport Processes program supports engineering research aimed at gaining a basic understanding of the thermal transport phenomena at nano/micro and macro scales in (1) cooling and heating of equipment and devices, (2) energy conversion, power generation and thermal energy storage and conservation, (3) the synthesis and processing of materials including advanced manufacturing, (4) the propulsion of air and land-based vehicles, and (5) thermal phenomena in biological systems.  The program supports fundamental research and engineering education in transport processes that are driven by thermal gradients, and manipulation of these processes to achieve engineering goals.