December 9, 2014

Dear Colleagues:

The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) in the Directorate for Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently created the Engineering for Natural Hazards (ENH) Program (PD 15-7396) to support fundamental research related to natural hazard mitigation for constructed civil infrastructure. NSF support ended on September 30, 2014, for multi-user access to the 14 earthquake engineering experimental research facilities that were part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) operated infrastructure under NSF award CMMI-0927178. The ENH program replaces the annual George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research (NEESR) program solicitation that had supported research to use the NEES experimental facilities. CMMI will not be issuing future annual NEESR program solicitations. Research proposals that had been submitted to the NEESR program solicitations should be submitted to the ENH program. The ENH program also now supports natural hazards engineering research that had been supported under CMMI’s former Geotechnical Engineering (GTE) and Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering (HMSE) Programs. A complete description of the ENH program is available at https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505177.

The ENH program has been created to enable researchers who propose research related to natural hazard mitigation for constructed civil infrastructure to have two full proposal submission windows each year and to enable more flexibility for the support of larger collaborative and multidisciplinary research teams addressing multiple hazards. Proposals may be submitted to the ENH Program via FastLane or Grants.gov. Proposals should be prepared in accordance with the NSF Grant Proposal Guide in effect at the time of proposal submission. Proposals will be reviewed in accordance with the merit review criteria listed in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide in effect at the time of proposal submission.

George Hazelrigg
Acting Division Director