Engineering Laboratory (EL) Grant Program

Program Description: The EL Grant Program provides financial assistance consistent with the EL’s mission to support research in the following fields: machine tool and machining process metrology; intelligent systems and information systems integration for applications in manufacturing; structures, construction metrology and automation; inorganic materials; polymeric materials; heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC & R) equipment performance; mechanical systems and controls; heat transfer and alternative energy systems; computer integrated building processes; indoor air quality and ventilation; the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP); smart grid; and applied economics. Financial support may be provided for conferences, workshops, or other technical research meetings that are relevant to the mission of EL.

EL’s Grant Program promotes the development and dissemination of advanced manufacturing and construction technologies, guidelines, and services to the U.S. manufacturing and construction industries through activities including measurement science research, performance metrics, tools and methodologies for engineering applications, and critical technical contributions to standards and codes development.

All proposals submitted must be in accordance with the program objectives listed below. The appropriate EL Program Manager for each EL field of research that follows may be contacted for clarification of the program objectives.

Applied Economics Office. The office provides standardized methods, economic models, training programs and materials and expert technical consulting in support of resource allocation decisions and uses techniques such as benefit-cost analysis, life-cycle costing, multi-criteria decision analysis and econometrics to evaluate new technologies. The contact person for this division is Robert Chapman and he may be reached at (301) 975-2723.

The NEHRP Office. The NEHRP Office’s primary research objective is to conduct applied, problem-focused research through a combination of intramural and collaborative extramural programs to improve U.S. seismic design and construction practices. Areas of emphasis include developing the technical basis for performance-based seismic engineering (PBSE); providing technical support for the earthquake engineering practice and associated model building code development; developing technical resources, tools, and guidelines that improve earthquake engineering practice; disseminating information on earthquake engineering technologies to earthquake practitioners; and developing tools that enhance the productivity of earthquake engineering design and construction productivity, economy, and effectiveness. Research needs references may be found at http://www.nehrp.gov/library/researchneeds.htm. The contact person for this division is Dr. John R. Hayes, Jr. and he may be reached at (301) 975-5640 or by e-mail at jack.hayes@nist.gov.

Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program. The program’s primary objective is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness in areas of critical national priority by anticipating and meeting the measurement science and standards needs for cyber-physical systems, such as smart grid, in ways that enhance economic prosperity and improve the quality of life. The contact person is David Wollman and he may be reached at (301) 975-2433.

Materials and Structural Systems Division. The primary objective is to collaborate with or conduct research consistent with the division’s programs in the areas of structures, inorganic materials, and polymeric materials (including safety, security, and sustainability of building and physical infrastructure, service-life performance of building materials, and construction cycle time reductions). The contact person for this division is Stephen A. Cauffman and he may be reached at (301) 975-6051.

Energy and Environment Division. The primary objective is to collaborate with or conduct research consistent with the laboratory programs in areas related to measurement science needed to enable Net Zero High Performance Green Buildings. The breadth of this area includes measurement science associated with the building envelope, HVAC equipment, renewable energy systems, building controls/building automation systems, and equipment used to achieve acceptable indoor air quality. In particular, applications for financial assistance are sought that would:

• (1) Enable building energy-use reduction through in-situ performance measurements. Measurement systems are required that can provide detailed, ongoing information on how energy is being used within a building, thus encouraging owners/occupants to make informed energy use decisions. Non-destructive measurement systems are also needed to identify construction defects, such as insulation voids, and to identify performance degradations in equipment such as heating and cooling systems.
  (2) Enable energy-use reduction through embedded intelligence in building controls. The key to realizing design potentials is combining new measurement technology and performance metrics with analysis techniques that can be implemented in building automation and control products. The resulting systems have a distributed, embedded intelligence that can detect and respond to faults and operational errors and inefficiencies.
  (3) Provide measurement science for emerging building technologies. Potential users of building energy technologies require actual, as opposed to advertised or rated performance measures and data before making capital investments. Credible performance measures and data will create market demand for emerging building energy technologies, economies of scale, and reduced cost.
  (4) Develop carbon footprint metrics/tools for building sustainability evaluation. Next-generation metrics and tools enabling rigorous carbon footprint assessment over the building service life are needed to link green building technology innovation to environmental/economic benefits.
• The contact person for this division is Dr. A. Hunter Fanney and he may be reached at (301) 975-5864. Details on these various activities are available at www.nist.gov/el. 

Systems Integration Division. Pursues state-of-the-art, information technology-based solutions to manufacturing systems integration problems. Solutions should support the development of new types of interface standards and new methods for testing the implementation of those standards. Research is to be conducted in collaboration with NIST programs in areas that include supply chain logistics, supplier discovery, distributed manufacturing simulation, systems dynamics to support sustainable manufacturing, product and process information models, product lifecycle analysis tools, lifecycle engineering assessments for energy efficiency and environmental performance, lifecycle engineering for green manufacturing and construction applications, metrics for sustainable manufacturing, model-based engineering, long-term knowledge retention, simulation integration, and engineering analysis. The contact person for this division is Vijay Srinivasan and he may be reached at (301) 975-3508 or by e-mail at vijay.srinvasan@nist.gov.

Intelligent Systems Division. The primary objective is to collaborate with or conduct research consistent with NIST laboratory programs and research in manufacturing process and equipment interoperability, industrial control system security, intelligent systems and robotics, and intelligent control of mobility systems; machine tool and machining process metrology; smart manufacturing systems; and sensor networking and integration. The contact person for this division is Albert Wavering and he may be reached at (301) 975-3418 or by e-mail at albert.wavering@nist.gov.

National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program. The primary objective is to collaborate with or conduct research consistent with the laboratory programs in the areas of windstorm and coastal inundation impact reduction (including engineering for extreme winds, storm surge, and tsunami). The contact person is: Dr. Marc Levitan who can be reached at 301-975-5340 or marc.levitan@nist.gov.

Disaster and Failure Studies Program. The primary objective is to collaborate with or conduct research consistent with the laboratory programs in the areas of disaster and failure studies. This work includes the creation of a Disaster and Failure Events Data Repository which will host a national archival database of selected hazard events, data collection standards, data collection technology and innovation, data management/archiving and geographic information systems. The contact person is: Eric Letvin who can be reached at 301-975-5412 or eric.letvin@nist.gov.

Prospective proposers are encouraged to contact the above researchers to determine the extent of interest prior to preparation of a detailed proposal.