5 Universities Launch Engineering Research Centers with $92.5 Million in NSF Funding
The National Science Foundation this week announced that it's funding the establishment of new NSF Engineering Research Centers at five universities in the United States. NSF said it will provide the centers--the third generation of such interdisciplinary research centers--with $92.5 million in funding over the next five years.
The new centers, which join 10 others previously established under the program, will be housed at Iowa State University, North Carolina State University, University of Arizona, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The aim of the centers is to foster "research and education collaborations among university and industry partners to focus on technological breakthroughs that lead to new products and services and on strengthening the capacity of [United States] engineering graduates to compete in global markets," according to NSF, which also explained that the five new centers, or ERCs, will place an increased emphasis on three key areas:
- Innovation and entrepreneurship;
- Partnerships with small research firms; and
- International collaboration and cultural exchange.
The new centers will focus on five distinct research areas: biorenewables, renewable energy management, optical access networks, "smart" implants, and solid-state lighting technology. The five centers launched within the last month include:
- NSF ERC for Biorenewable Chemicals at Iowa State, which aims to help "transform the existing petrochemical-based chemical industry to one based on renewable materials";
- NSF ERC for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems at North Carolina State, which will conduct research into transforming the nation's power grid to integrate "alternative energy generation and novel storage methods with existing power sources";
- NSF ERC for Integrated Access Networks at U Arizona, which will work with nine other universities in the United States and one each in Germany, Israel, and Finland, to investigate methods to improve the performance of optical access networks;
- NSF ERC for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials at North Carolina A&T, which will partner with four universities to research biodegradable systems used as surgical implants; and
- NSF Smart Lighting ERC at Rensselaer Polytechnic, which will focus on solid-state lighting technologies for a variety of industrial applications, including imaging, communications, displays, and transportation.
Each individual ERC will receive $18.5 million over the next five years to advance their particular areas of research.
"The [third-generation Engineering Research Centers] have been designed to build on the well developed understanding laid down by the two previous generations of ERCs," says Lynn Preston, leader of NSF's ERC program, in a statement released this week. "We have added several new dimensions designed to speed the innovation process and prepare engineering graduates who are innovative, creative and understand how to function in a global economy where engineering talent is broadly distributed throughout the world. We expect these ERCs to make even more significant impacts on the competitiveness of U.S. industry than their predecessors."