Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Naturally Inspired Resilient, Sustainable and Adaptable Infrastructure

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。 规划赠款不需要作为整个ERC竞争的一部分，但旨在建立团队之间的能力，以规划收敛，中心规模的工程研究。2017年，由于美国的极端天气，造成了超过3000亿美元的损失，直接损失和间接损失都创下新纪录。除了与天气有关的事件造成的损失外，极端的地质灾害和人为灾害也会给经济造成惊人的财政负担。需要了解是什么使社区具有复原力，从而使它们能够适应这些事件并迅速从这些事件中恢复过来，这对国家的生存至关重要。我们认为，理解如何有效地从这些极端事件中恢复的关键是检查自然系统，这些系统固有地抵抗，适应和进化不断变化的压力源。生态复原力考察自然系统对干扰的反应能力，并衡量系统恢复正常运作的能力。虽然人类通过简化和秩序寻求弹性和可持续性，但自然系统的多样性和复杂性使其具有弹性和可持续性。因此，理解使系统具有弹性的属性需要理解系统的各个组件以及这些组件的相互依赖性。这个潜在的工程研究中心（ERC）的独特性是我们的假设，因为它不是对单个生物体的研究，这是恢复力的关键，而是对这些生物体栖息和启用的系统的研究。大自然为开发分析方法、模型和系统提供了一个途径，这些方法、模型和系统提供了对极端事件和条件的复原力。该规划补助金的使命是发展跨学科研究的团队和结构，研究弹性自然系统的属性，在创新研究人员之间建立合作，并建立一个基础设施，允许通过技术转让进行合作研究，从而促进经济发展。一个成功的赠款将提供研究，导致大幅改善国防设施和网络，下一代弹性和高效的基础设施，并适应社区规划。所获得的知识将为社区领袖、规划者、工程师和公众提供有关减轻极端事件影响和从极端事件中恢复的信息。在自然系统中，可以找到为基础设施和社区复原力提供综合办法所需的跨科学和工程的知识、学科和方法的整合。通过考虑从生物体到系统水平的多尺度研究，我们预计a）用于基础设施的适应性，可持续性和高效材料和形式的最新技术水平将大幅增加，B）利用系统中的相互依赖性来提高人类社区的弹性，c）开发基于自然过程的建筑基础设施的优化，集成和适应性算法，以及d）改进教学方法，培养创新设计师和社区领袖。这项规划补助金将采取一种新的方法来发展跨学科的研究团队，既拥抱创造力和多样性，并提供跨机构分类的包容机制。 该中心的模型本身将通过认识到研究人员之间的相互依赖性与单个研究人员的专业知识同样重要来模拟自然系统。研究小组认识到，并不是所有的ERC规划赠款将导致成功资助ERC。然而，规划过程仍将产生更广泛的重大影响，包括发展1）多规模、跨学科的团队，以适当解决仿生学问题，建立有弹性和可持续的结构2）在仿生学领域建立技术转让、创新和经济发展的工业伙伴关系3）促进资源共享、参与团队和广泛多样性的组织结构，4）一个确定的研究人员网络，能够跨越学科界限进行创造性的综合，5）超越“视觉可识别”的限制，承认多样化的团队合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Over 300 Billion dollars in damages were incurred in 2017 due to extreme weather in the U.S., a new record in terms of both direct and indirect losses. In addition to losses from weather-related events, extreme geologic and human-caused disasters can cause staggering financial burdens to the economy. The need for understanding what makes communities resilient whereby they can adapt and recover quickly from these events is fundamental to the survival of the nation. We propose that a key to understanding how to effectively and efficiently recovery from these extreme events is to examine natural systems that inherently resist, adapt, and evolve to ever-evolving stressors. Ecological resilience examines the ability of a natural system to respond to disturbances and measures the system's ability to return to a functioning state. While humans seek resiliency and sustainability through simplification and order, the diversity and complexity of natural systems is what makes them resilient & sustainable. Therefore, understanding the attributes that make a system resilient requires an understanding of both the individual components of the system and the interdependencies of these components. The uniqueness of this potential Engineering Research Center (ERC) is our hypothesis in that it is not the study of individual organisms that is the key to resilience, but the study of the systems that these organisms inhabit and enable. Nature has provided an avenue for developing analysis methods, models and systems that provide resilience to extreme events and conditions. The mission of this planning grant is to develop the team and structure of transdisciplinary research that examines the attributes of resilient natural systems, create collaborations between innovative researchers, and construct an infrastructure that allows for collaborative research leading to economic development through tech transfer. A successful grant would provide research leading to substantially improved national defense facilities and networks, the next generation of resilient and efficient infrastructure, and adaptable community planning. The knowledge gained would inform community leaders, planners, engineers and the public on mitigating the impact of and recovering from extreme events. The integration of knowledge, disciplines and methods that span science and engineering required to provide comprehensive approaches to infrastructure and community resilience is found in natural systems. By considering multi-scale research from the organism to system levels, we anticipate dramatic increases to the state of the art in a) adaptable, sustainable and efficient materials and forms for use in infrastructure, b) leveraging the interdependencies in systems to improve human community resilience, c) developing algorithms for optimization, integration and adaptability of built infrastructure based on natural processes, and d) improved pedagogical approaches for development of innovative designers and community leaders. This planning grant will take a novel approach to developing transdisciplinary research teams that embrace both creativity and diversity, and that provide mechanisms for inclusion across institutional classifications. The model for the center will itself model natural systems by recognizing that interdependencies between researchers are as important as the expertise of the individual researchers. The research team recognizes that not all ERC planning grants will lead to successfully funded ERCs. However, the planning process will still provide significant broader impacts including development of 1) Multi-scale, transdisciplinary teams to appropriately tackle biomimicry for resilient and sustainable structures 2) Industrial partnerships for tech transfer, innovation and economic development in the area of biomimicry 3) Organizational structures that promote shared resources, engaged teaming and broad diversity, 4) An identified network of researchers capable of creative synthesis across disciplinary boundaries and 5) Recognition of diverse teaming beyond the limits of "visually identifiable" demographic diversity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.