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NSF 24-105

Dear Colleague Letter: Sunsetting the NSF-NIST Disaster Resilience Research Grants (DRRG) Funding Opportunity

June 17, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announce the sunset of the joint NSF-NIST Disaster Resilience Research Grants (DRRG) program (https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/disaster-resilience-research-grants-drrg).

Since June 2020, DRRG has invested $14.7 million in 38 projects with high potential to yield new science-based insights that can be used to improve planning, policy, decisions, design, codes, and standards. Both agencies are grateful to the many dedicated scholars who offered proposals to help the nation meet this need.

DRRG cast a wide net for the best research ideas with potential for resilience advances. As a result, DRRG projects addressed a wide range of hazards from wildland-urban interface fires, derechos and other windstorms, landslides, earthquakes, floods, and more; they examined hazards and impacts at levels ranging from individual structures, infrastructure entities and systems, communities; and they improved understanding of underlying hazard phenomenology. Also, and importantly, many students have had the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of disaster and resilience science as part of DRRG projects.

The annual DRRG symposium, where recipients present annual progress and findings from DRRG-funded research, has attracted over 600 attendees each year. DRRG symposia will still happen in 2024, 2025, and 2026 to promote information exchange and dissemination of new knowledge among the many stakeholders throughout the disaster resilience community. NIST has archived past symposia and will post logistics for future symposia on the same website.

Resilience to natural hazards remains a high priority for both NSF and NIST. NSF strongly encourages researchers to continue to submit proposals for fundamental research that could yield insights useful to advance natural disaster resilience in significant ways. Every NSF proposal is evaluated for important potential contributions to Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, and improving the nation’s resilience to natural hazards is recognized as a significant broader impact to be considered during review. NSF investment relies upon the submission of high-quality proposals and the availability of appropriated funds.

NSF offers a broad spectrum of funding opportunities relevant to resilience through Standing Programs, Dear Colleague Letters, and Program Solicitations (see below). The Program Directors from these programs encourage written inquiries from potential proposers, to check if their project might be a good fit.

Relevant Standing Programs Include:

Relevant Dear Colleague Letters and Program Solicitations include:

NSF and NIST program officers will offer an information webinar related to this DCL at noon EDT, Tuesday, July 9. A link for registration is available on the DRRG webpage. The webinar will also be archived there.

Sincerely,

Susan S. Margulies
Assistant Director, Directorate for Engineering (ENG)