About this Research Topic

Background

Technology transfer can be defined many ways, but in this collection, the term entails the systematic transference of scientific research results to practical tasks. The research product may be a novel design, an effective process, a tool or a set of tools. Effective technology transfer depends on many factors: it includes recognizing a gap in knowledge, focusing on the end user’s needs, long-term planning, effective communication and collaboration between researchers, standards organizations, and potential users, and a successful reduction of the knowledge or training burden required by the user. In particular, we seek examples of robust technology transfer from researchers seeking to mitigate the effect of natural hazards on the built and natural environment — transfers of knowledge that will significantly advance our nation’s resilience in the face of growing natural hazard threats.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation established the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) network. NHERI provides engineering and social science researchers with access to a world-class research infrastructure to support their efforts to improve the resilience and sustainability of the nation’s civil, natural and social infrastructure against earthquakes, windstorms and associated natural hazards such as tsunami and storm surge in coastal areas. Supported by the National Science Foundation, NHERI is a nation-wide network that consists of 12 university-based, shared-use experimental facilities, a computational modeling and simulation center, and a shared community cyber-infrastructure. The network is led and coordinated by a Network Coordination Office (NCO) centered at Purdue University.

Prior NHERI publications have detailed the unique capabilities of the twelve NHERI components and illustrated the effectiveness of large-scale laboratories, technical resources and expertise, and ability to support multi- and interdisciplinary research in the field of natural hazards mitigation. This includes the previous Research Topic on "Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) 2016-2020: Mitigating the Impact of Natural Hazards on Civil Infrastructure and Communities."

Now, after 6 years, researchers employing NHERI facilities have produced a diverse array of fruitful transitions from research into practice. Technology transfer within NHERI is defined broadly and can occur through a variety of mechanisms — from tools that advance an active user-base to the implementation of research findings into formal civil engineering building codes. We seek to publish a collection of articles focused on technology transfer that will provide insight for early career researchers on the practical aspects of successful technology transfer, including planning and other processes. Articles in this collection will discuss a successful research result and reveal methodologies for achieving this important outcome from one’s research.

We are soliciting original research papers that capture the details of technology transfer from research performed using NHERI network resources. First, papers will describe the developed technology. Then, the form of technology transfer will be detailed: for example, to whom or what entity was the technology transferred. Finally, the papers will lay out how the technology transfer was accomplished, including details about how transition partners were identified and what steps researchers took in the course of their research to accomplish the transfer of technology.

Keywords: Technology transfer, Natural hazards mitigation, Research-to-practice, Earthquake hazards, Wind hazards, Tsunami hazards, Storm surge hazards

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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