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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - NSF Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE) Program (PD 15-1638)

1) What is the NSF IMEE program?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE) program is a discretionary NSF grant program that funds fundamental, multidisciplinary research on how hazards and extreme events affect civil infrastructure and the people and communities that depend on it.

2) What is the main goal of IMEE-funded research?

The central goal is to improve understanding and decision-making across the full disaster lifecycle, with an emphasis on multi-hazard disasters and the linked challenges of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

3) What types of disasters or events does IMEE focus on?

IMEE emphasizes hazards and extreme events, including multi-hazard disasters. The program is framed around disasters and extreme events rather than normal, day-to-day conditions.

4) What is meant by the "full disaster lifecycle" in this program?

In IMEE, the disaster lifecycle refers to four connected emphasis areas: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The program encourages research that improves decision-making and outcomes across these phases, especially where they interact.

5) What is the role of community and societal resilience in IMEE?

Community and societal resilience is a major theme across the IMEE portfolio. The program supports research that helps define, measure, model, and strengthen resilience, including approaches that also support long-term sustainability.

6) Does IMEE require multidisciplinary research?

IMEE is intentionally broad and cross-cutting, encouraging projects that integrate engineering with social, behavioral, economic, and policy perspectives. The program is designed around the idea that disasters are not purely technical problems.

7) What disciplines can be involved in an IMEE proposal?

IMEE supports work that spans or connects fields such as civil, mechanical, transportation, and systems engineering, alongside sociology, psychology, economics, geography, political science, urban planning, epidemiology, the natural and physical sciences, and computer science.

8) Why does IMEE emphasize connections between infrastructure and societal systems?

The program highlights that infrastructure performance during extreme events is shaped not only by design and physical conditions, but also by human behavior, governance, communication, resource allocation, institutional capacity, and interdependent systems that can amplify or dampen impacts.

9) What kinds of topics fit under the mitigation emphasis area?

Mitigation-related research may include evaluating the effectiveness of structural and non-structural mitigation measures, developing or assessing local capacity-building strategies for risk reduction, and studying social and physical vulnerability to identify who and what is most at risk and why.

10) What kinds of topics fit under the preparedness emphasis area?

Preparedness research may address how warnings are issued and understood, how risk is communicated to different populations, how evacuation decisions and movements occur, how multi-hazard emergency plans are developed and coordinated, and whether pre-disaster planning improves outcomes when real events occur.

11) What kinds of topics fit under the response emphasis area?

Response research may examine infrastructure interdependencies and cascading failures (for example, interactions among power, water, transportation, communications, and healthcare), the role of innovation and improvisation in emergency management, and the use of emerging communication tools and social media for information sharing, coordination, and situational awareness.

12) What kinds of topics fit under the recovery emphasis area?

Recovery research may explore how recovery choices can reduce future risk rather than recreate vulnerabilities, how to build and apply resilience metrics and models, how interdependent infrastructure processes regain function over time, and how social and economic factors influence the pace and equity of recovery for households, businesses, and communities.

13) What types of projects does IMEE specifically not fund?

IMEE does not support research focused on normal, day-to-day infrastructure operations. It also does not support basic structural engineering or geotechnical engineering research that is not tied to hazards or disasters. Additionally, proposals that are primarily mechanistic hazard/disaster studies embedded in traditional single-discipline engineering frameworks are generally expected to go elsewhere within NSF.

14) Where should proposals about routine infrastructure operations be directed instead?

Proposals centered on routine infrastructure management and operations are directed to the Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program, not IMEE.

15) Where should basic structural engineering research be directed if it is not tied to hazards or disasters?

Basic structural engineering research that is not tied to hazards or disasters belongs in the Structural and Architectural Engineering (SAE) program rather than IMEE.

16) Where should basic geotechnical engineering research be directed if it is not tied to hazards or disasters?

Basic geotechnical engineering and materials research that is not tied to hazards or disasters belongs in the Geotechnical Engineering and Materials (GEM) program rather than IMEE.

17) Where should primarily mechanistic, single-discipline hazard/disaster engineering studies be directed?

Proposals that are primarily mechanistic hazard/disaster studies embedded in traditional single-discipline engineering frameworks are generally expected to go to the Engineering for Natural Hazards (ENH) program, reflecting IMEE's preference for integrative, multidisciplinary approaches.

18) What is the Funding Opportunity Number for this program?

The Funding Opportunity Number listed is PD 15 1638.

19) What is the CFDA number and funding category for this opportunity?

This opportunity is listed in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category, with CFDA 47.041.

20) Is cost sharing or matching required?

No. The opportunity states there is no cost sharing or matching requirement.

21) Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning it is open to any type of entity, subject to any clarifications in the full announcement.

22) What are the key dates listed for this opportunity?

The posting and creation date listed are March 13, 2015. The original and current closing date listed is September 15, 2015. The archive date listed is October 15, 2028.

23) What should applicants do if they have access or technical problems on Grants.gov?

For access or technical issues related to the announcement on Grants.gov, applicants are directed to NSF Grants.gov support at grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov.

24) What is the overarching research idea behind IMEE?

The program is built around the idea that disaster impacts and infrastructure performance reflect both technical factors and societal dynamics, including governance, communication, institutional capacity, human behavior, and interdependencies among systems.

25) Does IMEE prioritize research that links sustainability and resilience?

Yes. The program highlights resilience as a major theme and notes an interest in strengthening resilience in ways that also support long-term sustainability.