As per reports, three new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) will receive $55.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education.

NSF made the announcement saying that ASU will lead the $18.5 million Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG), which will pioneer advances to solve some of the world’s biggest environmental and infrastructure development issues.

The center will aim to find way to make the soil stronger so that building foundations can better withstand earthquakes.

The coveted distinction of leading two Engineering Research Centers puts ASU among the country’s top research institutions in advancing innovation and discovery, designed to benefit people around the globe.

Sethuraman ‘Panch’ Panchanathan, senior vice president for Knowledge Enterprise Development at ASU, said, “ASU’s New American University model, with its interdisciplinary approach to solving complex challenges, has led to increasing success in pursuing large-scale, highly competitive awards such as the Engineering Research Centers”.

August 10’s announcement was part of NSF’s announcement of three new centers across the United States, with Arizona State University figuring prominently in two of them.

It has been said that ASU already leads the Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) Center, which was awarded in 2011 and recently renewed by the NSF and the Department of Energy.

North Carolina State University is the only other university to lead two NSF Engineering Research Centers. And there are only six other universities that have both leadership and partnership roles in multiple ERCs.