NSF Award
2223756
Infrastructure is essential for the safety, economic well-being and health of our nation. However, continuing to build and maintain infrastructure using traditional, solely structural materials is environmentally and financially unsustainable. Sustainable infrastructure development represents a goal for the United States that can only be met through multi-purpose building materials that lower the overall energy and environmental footprint of our built environment. This project contributes to this national need by developing multi-functional and readily repairable infrastructure materials using immobilized microbial communities called ‘biofilms’. Biofilms have the potential to meet diverse infrastructure needs and improve community and environmental health, including through cleaner air and water. This convergent project will leverage social sciences and broaden participation by involving groups that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and infrastructure inequities to ensure new technologies are safe, acceptable, inclusive and beneficial.<br/><br/>The project goals are to: (1) structurally optimize infrastructure materials to enable multi-functionalization and on-demand repair through engineered living systems (i.e., biofilms); (2) provide flexibility in functionality via exchangeable, living ‘treatment’ cartridges and through permanent integration of biofilms into infrastructure; and (3) identify and address cultural, social and economic challenges that may impede adoption of engineered, living infrastructure materials through design improvements and evidence-based communication strategies. This work will address fundamental and applied questions regarding reactive transport optimization, hydrogel mechanics and fracturing, building-material optimization, and microbial community interactions. Coupling computationally supported reactive transport modeling with biofilm engineering experiments will generate new insights on how to control desired biofilm functions in infrastructure. Two of Montana State University’s centers for excellence, the Center for Biofilm Engineering and the Center for Science, Technology, Ethics, and Society, will collaborate to integrate Science, Technology, Ethics, and Society (STES) studies and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research. This holistic, innovative approach will allow for assessing and improving the adoption of transformative technologies by opening channels of feedback between stakeholders and the technical team and allowing for design changes to better meet community needs and expectations, particularly for its most vulnerable and marginalized members. Outcomes at the nexus of engineering, biology and social sciences will bolster NSF’s Big Idea of Understanding the Rules of Life and contribute to four of the top seven NSF 2026 Idea Machine topics. This project will work closely with groups that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and infrastructure inequities (including American Indian and rural populations in Montana) and will involve these communities in the research directly to ensure new technologies are safe, acceptable, and beneficial. The Broadening Participation Plan includes partnerships with Tribal Colleges across Montana, recruitment of underrepresented minority students, research experiences for undergraduates, and recurring mentorship and professional development opportunities for trainees.<br/><br/>This project is jointly funded by the Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Engineered Living Systems (ELiS) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).<br/><br/>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.
