9712010 This proposal is for a Small Grant for Exploratory Research which evaluates the nature of interdisciplinary efforts in Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) research. It acts as a pre-test of the Principal Investigator's work on the policy impacts of disciplinary models of decision making in the context of infrastructure policy making. It is hypothesized that the impact of self-selection into professions and the educational and professional socialization into those professions shapes how infrastructure decisions are made. Consequently, the potential for interdisciplinary understanding is increased. The SGER will investigate this condition in attempting multidisciplinary CIS research. The project will: 1) develop a clear understanding of NSF's CIS-related programmatic research portfolio; 2) develop a similar understanding for research and development at other federal and state agencies; 3) identify interdisciplinary CIS-related centers or institutes in the U.S. and throughout the world and describe their focus and expertise; 4) evaluate the interdisciplinary nature of NSF-CIS awards; 5) identify stakeholder organizations to be partners and initiate discussions of research and development partnerships; 6) develop interdisciplinary framing of basic CIS research needs; and 7) posit the impacts of the results on the future of engineering education. ***
