The following is a cross-post from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is awarding more than $6.6 million to fund research into improving disaster resilience. Eleven organizations will receive 12 grants to conduct research into how earthquakes, wind and fire affect the built environment to inform building designs, codes and standards to help those structures better withstand such hazards.

“Natural hazards represent a significant threat to the well-being of our communities. In 2018 alone, the U.S. experienced 14 separate billion-dollar events, with total losses exceeding $91 billion. And the monetary figure does not reflect the many lives lost and countless lives disrupted,” said Howard Harary, director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory, which manages the Disaster Resilience Grant Research Program. “Each of these grants represents research that is a substantial step toward creating a more disaster resilient nation.”

The grant awards were announced today during the 2019 Disaster Resilience Symposium, hosted at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus. The research projects align with NIST’s own programs in disaster resilience and support development of science-based building codes.

For more information on the awardees, please visit https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2019/08/nist-awards-66-million-research-help-structures-better-withstand