Engineering Environmental Resiliency (EER)
The EER program funds research to develop innovative technologies and processes that promote resource conservation, waste reduction, and environmental protection, enhancing the resilience and sustainability of U.S. manufacturing and energy systems.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: Proposals accepted anytime
Funding Amounts: No specified ceiling or floor; award size and duration vary by project.
Summary: Supports fundamental research advancing environmental resiliency through resource conservation, recovery, and technologies that safeguard the environment and human health.
Description
The Engineering Environmental Resiliency (EER) program funds fundamental research to advance resource and energy conservation, recovery, and environmental safeguarding. The program aims to enhance the resiliency and security of U.S. manufacturing and energy systems through better use of domestic resources. EER supports projects in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum science and engineering, nanoengineering, microelectronics, and related national priorities.
Research topics include:
- Transformative biotechnology and manufacturing for domestic energy sources
- Engineered chemical, biological, and geo-physical processes
- Benign manufacturing and sustainable recycling
- Minimization and reuse of waste in soil, water, and air (closing resource loops)
- Life cycle assessment, materials flow analysis, and AI modeling for the circular economy
- Chemistry, transport, and fate of nutrients and emerging contaminants in the environment
- Biochemical reactivity of pollutants in the built environment
- Interactions of nanomaterials/nanosystems with biological and environmental media
- Engineered systems for detection and response to environmental pathogens and toxins
Proposals primarily focused on earth systems or human/social responses to environmental issues are redirected to other NSF directorates.
