The engineering research visioning alliance (erva) - II

The National Science Foundation Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities awarded the University Industry Demonstration Partnership, Inc. a cooperative agreement totaling $1,679,363 on September 1, 2026, to support the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) II program.

Under this award, UIDP operates ERVA as a multi-stakeholder convening and visioning platform designed to identify and develop bold, societally impactful engineering research directions. ERVA engages academia, industry, professional societies, and government agencies to collect and integrate input on engineering research priorities. The organization facilitates robust, multi-modal communications to enable bidirectional information flow across the engineering research community, strengthen connectivity among stakeholders, and increase coordination across engineering disciplinary communities. ERVA's visioning activities illuminate engineering research directions that support U.S. national priorities and workforce development needs to advance economic growth, national security, and societal benefit while strengthening U.S. global competitiveness.

ERVA is a partnership of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the EPSCOR/IDEA Foundation, and UIDP, with engagement broadened through a wider network of participants. Work is performed in Columbia, South Carolina, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031. The award falls under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041).

Abstract

The engineering research visioning alliance (erva) is wholly supported through a cooperative agreement between the national science foundation and the university industry demonstration partnership. Since its inception in 2021, the goal of the erva organization has been to identify and develop bold and societally impactful new engineering research directions and thereby catalyze the engineering research community?s pursuit of innovative, high-impact research. Erva seeks, obtains and integrates input from a range of stakeholders with interest in engineering research, including academia, industry, professional societies, and government agencies. Robust, multi-modal communications are designed to fuel consistent, effective, bidirectional flow of information across the engineering research stakeholder community to ensure broad input and impact. Through its activities, erva aims to strengthen connectivity across the full range of stakeholders and increase coordination among engineering disciplinary communities. The erva ideation and visioning engine is designed to drive new initiatives that advance the frontiers of engineering and science to maximize potential for economic growth, national security and societal benefit and strengthen U.S. Leadership in the technology-based global economy. Erva provides a unique capacity for the engineering research community to drive elucidation of engineering research directions that directly support U.S. National priorities. Erva visioning activities are also expected to illuminate engineering and technology workforce development needs in service to these national priorities. Erva is a partnership of the big ten academic alliance (btaa), the established program to stimulate competitive research (epscor)/institutional development award (idea) foundation (EIF), and the university industry demonstration partnership (uidp). Erva engagement is broadened through leveraging a wide network of affiliate partners, including the american society for engineering education (asee). In this project, erva will leverage their substantive cross-sector partnership network to: (1) engage the engineering, science, and technology communities to identify key engineering-led research opportunity spaces; (2) strategically design and convene visioning events that combine the knowledge and foresight of multidisciplinary stakeholders leveraging a convergence paradigm; (3) disseminate key findings and impacts from these visioning activities through multichannel communications; and (4) anticipate emerging opportunities to drive conversations within the engineering research and development ecosystem to rapidly address issues of national importance. Through its visioning events, reports, and outreach activities, erva seeks to deliver impactful insights and recommendations that enable the engineering research ecosystem to address critical national priorities and challenges. 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.- subawards are planned for this award.