Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI)

The Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program supports fundamental research in geotechnical, structural, materials, architectural, and coastal engineering. The program promotes research that can shape the future of the nation's physical civil infrastructure and contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and hazards and disaster resilience. The ECI program considers various types of civil infrastructure, including buildings, residential construction, earth and earth retaining structures, and components of flood protection systems. The program also supports research on geomaterials and infrastructure materials utilized in load-bearing systems as well as in non-structural systems. • The ECI program focuses on advancing knowledge on the behavior of physical civil infrastructure subjected to and interacting with the natural environment. • The program supports research on civil infrastructure that contributes to the National Science Foundation's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP). • Principal Investigators are encouraged to leverage NSF's investments in the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) experimental, computational modeling and simulation, and data resources. • The ECI program does not support research that addresses natural resource exploration or recovery, investigates blasts and explosions, develops sensor and measurement technologies, or focuses on hazard characterization.