Grants / Department of Defense / Engineer Research and Development Center

W81EWF-25-SOI-0007: Analysis and Evaluation of Water Erosion Measurement of Bio-Cemented Soils for Dams and Levees Flood Mitigation

Closed Closed September 2, 2025 Opportunity W81EWF-25-SOI-0007 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Engineer Research and Development Center notices from 2025.

• Award ceiling$35,000
• Total funding$35,000
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $35,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

A. Short Description of Funding Opportunity ERDC seeks applications for: evaluating and analyzing water erosion measurement of bio-cemented soil collected from Dams and Levees. B. Background: Floods affect more people than any other natural hazard and pose extreme threats to infrastructure and environmentally sensitive areas. There are about 90,000 dams in the U.S. alone, of which nearly 17% have been identified as having a high-hazard potential, capable of resulting in the loss of human life and significant property damage in the event of failure. Reports indicate that erosion is the main cause of dam failures, with the Association of State Dam Safety Officials attributing 20% of dam failures in the U.S. While the Army monitors and mitigates soil erosion of its water infrastructure using conventional methods, it faces the challenge of finding novel solutions. Recently, biologically derived and/or -active construction materials and methods, such as microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), have emerged as promising non-resource-intensive options to enhance the erosion resistance of soils. However, field studies that validate the use of MICP for the mitigation of internal or surface erosion of water retaining structures are required. Here, we propose to evaluate MICP as a non-resource-intensive solution for enhancing the erosion resistance of soils in earth embankments. C. Program Description/Objective: Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) treatment of soils promises to ensure water security by improving the resilience of earth embankment dams and levees through their stabilization, thus reducing logistical burdens and carbon emissions. Our team demonstrated that MICP treatment of soils is a cost-efficient and non-resource-intensive solution for contact erosion, a common geotechnical problem occurring on older water retaining structures such as earth embankment dams and levees. We are currently looking for experts on water erosion measurement for the erosion resistant MICP-treated soils collected from Army-oversighted Dams and Levees. The anticipated expertise we are looking is the capability to evaluate the analyze data on soil erosion of the MICP-treated soil samples and suggest and advise our team with the state-of-art knowledge on biocementation for publication. Potentially, we are looking for collaborators who can contribute technical experts through leveraging this program for demonstration and validation in the future. D.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.