George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research

The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) invites proposals for research that uses the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) to advance knowledge, discovery, and innovation for (1) earthquake and tsunami loss reduction of our nation's civil infrastructure, and (2) new experimental simulation techniques and instrumentation for NEES. NEES comprises a network of 14 earthquake engineering experimental equipment sites available for experimentation on-site or in the field and through telepresence. NEES equipment sites include shake tables, geotechnical centrifuges, a tsunami wave basin, unique large-scale testing laboratory facilities, and mobile and permanently installed field equipment. The NEEShub cyberinfrastructure connects, via Internet2, the equipment sites as well as provides telepresence; a curated central data repository known as the NEES Project Warehouse; simulation tools; collaborative tools for facilitating on-line planning, execution, and post-processing of experiments; and the NEES Academy for education and outreach. Projects proposed and supported under this solicitation must require significant use of one or more of the NEES equipment sites listed at http://www.nees.org and the related cyberinfrastructure and/or require significant reuse of data curated and archived in the NEES Project Warehouse at http://nees.org/warehouse. Proposals that seek new scientific inquiry through reuse of data curated and archived in the NEES Project Warehouse, either alone or in combination with use of the NEES equipment site(s), will be considered. The data eligible for reuse from the NEES Project Warehouse must be data that are curated, archived, and publicly viewable and available at http://nees.org/warehouse.