Infrastructure Systems and People (ISP)

Published: 10 August 2025
Categories: NSF Pgm Announcements

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

Synopsis

Infrastructure systems comprise complex connections between physical components, organizational structures and operational methods that support the needs of people and communities at the local, regional, national, and global scales.  Such systems form the backbone of society, providing essential services as well as ensuring public health and welfare, economic prosperity and national security, and are expected to function under all operational conditions. 

Meanwhile, infrastructure systems are capital intensive and vulnerable to disruptions from extreme events, including natural disasters, social crises, and malicious attacks. Disruptions in one system can have cascading impacts on others in space and over time. Moreover, short- versus long-term trade-offs, unintended consequences, and maladaptation are not often accounted for. How systems function at the “extreme,” which can be due to disruptors from the introduction of innovation, the convergence of technologies, sudden changes to their utilization and access, dramatic changes in operating

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NSF invests $29.2 million in EPSCoR Research Infrastructure collaborations for transformative impact across 11 jurisdictions

Published: 8 August 2025
Categories: National Science Foundation

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced six major awards through its EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: Focused EPSCoR Collaborations (FEC), investing $29.2 million across 11 jurisdictions to strengthen research capacity and drive translational research across the nation.

These four-year awards aim to catalyze transformative research and infrastructure enhancement in states historically underfunded in federal research. The selected projects span critical areas, including use-inspired research in the study of Earth systems, wildfire management, water resource management, ecosystem and human health risks, functionality of electronic devices, biotechnology and artificial intelligence-driven health care.

“These EPSCoR FEC awards are an example of NSF’s commitment to ensuring that all states and jurisdictions across the United States have the opportunity to be part of our research enterprise and benefit from the jobs and economic prosperity that result from American innovation,” said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. “These multi-state collaborative teams are tackling real-world research challenges that matter to the citizens of their regions while also building competitive research environments for the entire nation.”

This year’s FEC awards include:

Optical properties of mineral dust aerosols: Building capacity for use-inspired applications through experimental and theoretical investigations (Nevada System of Higher Education – Desert Research Institute, University of Oklahoma Norman Campus and University of Wyoming) — Mineral dust aerosols are significant in the atmosphere, affecting radiative forcing, ecosystem fertilization,

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NIST to Provide Updates on Construction Safety Team Investigations in September Advisory Committee Meeting

Published: 6 August 2025
Categories: NIST Buildings & Construction

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

The public meetings will include updates on NIST’s investigations into the impacts of 2017’s Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico and the 2021 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida.

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