Engineering for Civil Infrastructure
🏛 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)
✓ Free, no account · Source: Grants.gov · Last verified Jul 15, 2026
Can you apply?
This grant is for fundamental research on civil infrastructure behavior and resilience. Eligible applicants are academic institutions, research centers, and researchers conducting basic science in engineering disciplines. Research must address geotechnical, structural, materials, architectural, or coastal engineering with strong theoretical foundations. Projects should focus on infrastructure resilience, sustainability, climate adaptation, or hazard mitigation.
Geographic scope is national. U.S. academic and research institutions are eligible. No cost sharing is required.
Ineligible topics include natural resource exploration, sensor technology development, and hazard characterization. Research must advance fundamental scientific understanding, not development or applied engineering for specific agencies.
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Program description
The Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program supports fundamental research in geotechnical, structural, materials, architectural, and coastal engineering. The ECI program promotes research that can shape the future of the nation’s physical civil infrastructure and that can contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and hazards and disaster resilience. Types of civil infrastructure that the ECI program considers include, but are not limited to, buildings, residential construction, earth and earth retaining structures, and components of flood protection systems; water, waste disposal, and wastewater systems; energy infrastructure (excluding nuclear); and transportation systems (excluding pavements). Both disciplinary and convergent research that can address the challenges of physical civil infrastructure to be resilient and sustainable over its service lifetime are of particular interest. Broader impacts of ECI research include fostering community welfare for an equitable and prosperous nation and promoting environmentally friendly, circular economy policies.
The ECI program supports research that advances knowledge on the behavior of physical civil infrastructure subjected to and interacting with the natural environment during construction; under service and long-term conditions, including increased demands due to climate change adaptation and other emerging stressors; and under conditions caused by single or multiple extreme hazard events (extreme weather, windstorms, earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surges, landslides, and fire, including wildland-urban interface fire). The ECI program also supports research on geomaterials and infrastructure materials utilized in load-bearing systems as well as in non-structural systems. Of particular interest is experimental and analytical/computational research to advance the fundamental understanding of coupled multi-physics, multi-scale (spatial and temporal), multi-functional behavior of these materials and their intended use in civil infrastructure.
The ECI 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 (https://www.designsafe-ci.org/) in their research to accelerate advances needed for reducing the impacts of natural hazards on civil infrastructure. The NHERI Science Plan (https://www.designsafe-ci.org/facilities/nco/science-plan/) offers a range of research topics that could benefit from the use of NHERI resources and are relevant to the ECI program.
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. The ECI program only supports fundamental research topics for civil infrastructure with a strong grounding in theory. Topics which fall within the mission for research and/or development of other federal and state agencies are appropriate for the ECI program only when addressing fundamental scientific questions. Research on natural hazard characterization is supported through programs in the NSF Directorate for Geosciences.
Proposers are actively encouraged to email a one-page project summary to the ECI Program Officers before submitting a full proposal for guidance on whether the proposed research topic falls within the scope of the ECI program; this guidance especially should be requested for multi-disciplinary research proposals, proposals for which research and/or development on the subject civil infrastructure(s) are also supported by other federal and state agencies, and proposals that consider civil infrastructure not listed above.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Key dates & requirements
Required documents
- NSF PAPPG required forms (SF-424, project narrative, budget and justification)
- Biographical sketches of key personnel
- Current and pending support documentation
- Facilities and equipment descriptions
- Data management plan
Program contact
- 👤 National Science Foundation
- 📧 grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
- 📞 703-292-4261
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 47.041 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
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$41,946,862
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$39,155,237
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$38,277,956
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$37,936,436
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$36,940,111
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$36,277,271
-
$36,183,087
-
$32,471,912
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$32,414,114
-
$31,561,058
Top States by Funding
- TX 3 awards $90.6M
- CA 7 awards $85.0M
- IL 5 awards $83.9M
- AZ 2 awards $68.7M
- NC 2 awards $63.3M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
Funding history
Annual funding for this program — Federal obligations (CFDA 47.041). How funding has trended year over year.
| 2024 | $752,230,000 | |
| 2025 | $727,730,000 | |
| 2026 est. | $181,990,000 |
FAQ
Who is eligible to apply for ECI funding?
Academic institutions and research centers conducting fundamental research in civil engineering disciplines. International collaborations are allowed but lead institution must be U.S.-based.
What types of civil infrastructure can my research address?
Buildings, water systems, transportation, energy infrastructure, flood protection systems, and earth structures are all eligible. Research must focus on fundamental behavior and resilience under environmental conditions and hazards.
What research topics are NOT supported by ECI?
The program excludes natural resource exploration, sensor/measurement technology development, hazard characterization studies, and applied development work for other federal agencies.
Is a Letter of Intent required before submitting a full proposal?
No LOI is required, but NSF strongly encourages emailing a one-page project summary to program officers for pre-submission feedback on scope alignment.
What is the typical funding range and project duration?
Award amounts vary by proposal scope. Project duration is typically 2-3 years, though multi-year awards are possible. Check the current solicitation for specific guidelines.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Email a one-page project summary to ECI Program Officers before submitting your full proposal for scope guidance. This can prevent out-of-scope rejections.
- Emphasize fundamental scientific advancement over applied engineering solutions. NSF distinguishes basic research from development work for specific agencies.
- Consider leveraging the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) resources and DesignSafe-CI computational tools in your research design.
- Connect your research to broader impacts like climate adaptation, disaster resilience, sustainability, or community welfare to strengthen competitiveness.
- Ensure your proposal clearly demonstrates multi-physics, multi-scale understanding of infrastructure materials or systems, as this is a strong interest area.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Proposing applied engineering or development work rather than fundamental research with theoretical grounding. Including topics like natural resource extraction, sensor development, or hazard characterization which fall outside ECI scope. Failing to obtain pre-submission feedback from program officers on topic fit.
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