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Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Structural and Architectural Engineering and Materials (SAEM) program (Funding Opportunity Number PD 16-1637) funds fundamental research aimed at making buildings and other civil structures more sustainable and able to remain continuously occupied and/or operational throughout their useful life. The program is centered on advancing core knowledge and innovation in structural and architectural engineering and in structural and architectural materials, with an emphasis on taking a holistic view of the full lifecycle of structures. That lifecycle scope explicitly spans analysis and design, construction, operation, maintenance, retrofit, repair, and long-term performance. For buildings in particular, SAEM is broadly interested in the entire foundation-structure-envelope system, including facade, curtain wall, roofing, and interior systems, rather than focusing only on the primary structural frame.

A major theme of SAEM is rethinking building concepts and design paradigms so that structures reduce dependence and interdependence on municipal infrastructure. The solicitation highlights examples like self-hydrating buildings using closed-loop water systems and self-heating/cooling/ventilating concepts that reduce energy reliance. It also encourages research on building systems that are reconfigurable, enabling rapid construction as well as disassembly and disposal at end of life. Alongside these goals, the program values work that improves reliability and resilience while reducing complexity, with the broader aim of practical sustainability over decades of service.

On the technical side, SAEM supports research strategies that make structures cost-effective across their lifecycle, efficient in their use of resources and energy, and better able to incorporate sustainable materials. Specific topical areas called out include mitigating deterioration mechanisms such as fatigue and corrosion, addressing serviceability challenges such as large deflections and vibrations, and advancing physics-based computational modeling and simulation. The program also encourages interdisciplinary integration, drawing on materials science, building science, mechanics of materials, dynamics and control, reliability and risk analysis, architecture, economics, and human factors. In addition, SAEM points proposers to a federal research agenda on high-performance and net-zero energy buildings (the National Science and Technology Council report referenced in the description) as aligned context for sustainable foundation-structure-envelope and nonstructural systems and materials.

Structural health monitoring is within scope when it is focused on decision-making systems for civil structures, meaning work that turns monitoring information into actionable maintenance, operation, or risk decisions. However, proposals primarily focused on developing new sensor technologies or data collection hardware are expected to be submitted to other NSF programs. Likewise, if a proposal is primarily about structural performance under natural hazards such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes, tsunamis, or landslides, SAEM directs those submissions to the Engineering for Natural Hazards Program instead. The solicitation is also clear about exclusions: SAEM does not support research centered on blast loads and fire effects on building systems, and it does not support data-enabled science and engineering as a focus area under this program.

Within the materials portion of SAEM, NSF is looking for fundamental investigations into new sustainable structural and architectural materials that go beyond routine extensions of conventional construction materials like concrete, steel, and masonry. The emphasis is on multifunctional materials that contribute directly to lifetime serviceability and performance. Examples of priority directions include biological and bio-inspired materials, materials derived from recycled feedstocks and/or designed for easy recyclability, low-embodied-carbon material systems, and smart materials that change properties in response to environmental conditions. At the same time, the program explicitly discourages parametric studies of commonly used construction materials, indicating that incremental testing variations without deeper fundamental advances are not a fit. Materials work not tied specifically to civil infrastructure is expected to go to other NSF homes, such as the MEP program within CMMI or the Division of Materials Research within the MPS Directorate.

Administratively, this is a discretionary NSF grant opportunity in the science and technology research and development category (CFDA 47.041). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning any entity type may apply as long as it meets NSF requirements and any additional eligibility notes in the full solicitation. The opportunity was posted March 24, 2016, with a closing date of September 15, 2016. The description also notes that SAEM encourages knowledge dissemination and technology transfer efforts that help move research outcomes toward broader societal benefit and eventual implementation, consistent with its overarching goal of enabling sustainable, long-lived, continuously usable structures.

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