Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure

The Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP HI) program is a grant initiative that aims to advance America's prosperity, health, and infrastructure through ambitious engineering research. This program addresses demanding engineering problems too complex for one individual to solve, requiring dedicated and coordinated efforts by interdisciplinary research teams. Instead of being achievable through a sequence of smaller, short-sighted projects, LEAP HI projects focus on meaningful, long-term goals.

These projects strive for fundamental research leading to disruptive technologies and methods, creating a groundwork for new industries, driving significant improvements in quality of life, and revitalizing the built environment. The LEAP HI program supports these extensive research projects, which typically last up to five years, with a budget ranging between $1 million and $2 million.

To be considered for the grant, LEAP HI proposals must demonstrate the societal and intellectual significance of the research problem, particularly its impact on economic competitiveness, quality of life, public health, or vital infrastructure. The proposals should revolve around one or more core topics of CMMI (Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation), and the integration of disciplinary expertise rarely involved in CMMI-funded projects is highly encouraged.

Moreover, the LEAP HI proposals need to include an Engineering Leadership Plan. This plan should effectively convey the excitement of the engineering research to the general public and future engineers as the project progresses. Also, the proposals need to exemplify the necessity for a prolonged, collaborative, interdisciplinary teamwork via a comprehensive Research Integration Plan. This plan should provide a timeline for the research activities and elucidate how the project will be managed for the effective unification of the project's key areas. The Cognizant Program Officer for the LEAP HI grant program is Bruce Kramer.