The ERC mission has three main elements: 

Cross-disciplinary, Systems-oriented Research — ERCs bring diverse engineering and scientific disciplines together to address fundamental research issues crucial to making technological advances in areas that will transform industrial practices or establish new industries to enhance the international competitiveness of U.S. industry in a global economy. With their focus on both next-generation and transforming engineered systems, these centers create a synergy between science, engineering, and industrial practice.

Education and Outreach — Each ERC develops a culture in which graduate and undergraduate students work in cross-disciplinary teams, in close collaboration with the center's industrial partners. ERCs integrate engineering education and research and expose students to the integrative aspects of engineered systems and industrial practice, producing graduates who are more effective as innovators and leaders of technical change in industry. To build the engineering workforce for the future, these centers involve precollege teachers and students in their research and education programs. An important aim is to take better advantage of the tremendous pool of potential engineering talent available among groups of students, such as minorities and women, who are traditionally underrepresented in engineering and science. 

Industrial Collaboration and Technology Transfer — ERCs form strong partnerships between academe and industry. Industry is actively involved in ERCs through participation in strategic planning, joint research, mentoring students, and involvement in proof-of-concept test beds—­all modes that strengthen the partnership with industry and speed the transfer of knowledge and technology. Thus ERCs provide the intellectual foundation for industry to collaborate with faculty and students on resolving generic, long-range challenges, producing the knowledge needed to ensure continual, sometimes revolutionary advances in technology and speed their transition to the marketplace, while training graduates who are more effective in industry.

From their inception the ERCs have embodied NSF’s strategic interests in the integration of research and education, in the integration of science and engineering disciplines, in partnerships between academe and industry, and in the improvement of science and engineering graduates’ ability to meet the nation’s needs in a global economy. In many ways the program has redefined the concept of an academic research center, serving as a model for the development of other Centers programs in the U.S. and around the world. 

Each ERC is established as a three-way partnership involving academe, industry, and NSF (in some cases with the participation of state, local, and/or other Federal government agencies). In FY 2007, total annual funding from all sources provided directly to each Center ranged from $3.8 to $20.7 million, with NSF's contribution ranging from $1.6 to $6.1 million per year.

While the ERCs differ from one another, all share the following key features: 

• A long-term strategic vision for an emerging engineered system with the potential to spawn new industries or transform a current industry’s product lines, processes, service delivery, or infrastructure systems

• A strategic plan that enables the ERC to realize its vision by delivering advances in knowledge, technology, and education and a diverse engineering workforce in academe and industry

• A research program that integrates cross-disciplinary fundamental research with research to advance technology through proof-of-concept test beds designed to test theory in functioning systems

• An education program that teams undergraduate and graduate students and integrates research results into curricula for pre-college and college students as well as practitioners

• Outreach in research and education that enables a broad base of faculty, college-level undergraduate and graduate students, and pre-college students and their teachers to be involved in the ERC

• Partnership with industry and other practitioners to formulate and evolve the strategic research plan, strengthen the research and education programs, and speed technology transfer

• A diversity plan that includes efforts to increase the diversity of the ERC’s students and faculty at all levels to exceed national engineering-wide averages through active involvement of groups underrepresented in engineering. 

• Bioengineering
• Manufacturing and Processing
• Earthquake Engineering
• Micro/Optoelectronics and Information Technology

Synthetic Biology ERC (Class of 2006)
University of California at Berkeley, CA (lead institution) in partnership with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Prairie View A&M University, and the University of California at San Francisco

Quality of Life Technology ERC (Class of 2006)
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (lead institution) in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh

ERC for the Engineering of Living Tissues  (Class of 1998)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (lead institution) in partnership with Emory University

Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology (Class of 1998)
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (lead institution) in partnership with the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Carnegie Mellon University, the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, MIT, and Shady Side Hospital

ERC for Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems (Class of 2003)
University of Southern California - Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA, in partnership with California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Santa Cruz

MANUFACTURING AND PROCESSING

Center for Advanced Engineering of Fibers and Films (Class of 1998)
Clemson University, Clemson, SC (lead institution) in partnership with MIT

ERC in Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (Class of 2006)
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (lead institution) in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Vanderbilt University 
Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (Class of 2006)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (lead institution) in partnership with Purdue University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez 

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING1

Mid-America Earthquake Center (Class of 1997)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (lead institution) in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Memphis, MIT, St. Louis University, Texas A&M University, and Washington University 

MICRO/OPTOELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ERC for Extreme Ultraviolet Science & Technology (Class of 2003)
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (lead institution) in partnership with the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Berkeley

ERC for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (Class of 2003)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (lead institution) in partnership with Colorado State University, University of Oklahoma, and University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (Class of 2000)
University of Michigan (lead institution) in partnership with Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University 

Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Class of 2000)
Northeastern University (lead institution) in partnership with Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

ERC on Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (Class of 2006) 
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (lead institution) in partnership with the City University of New York, the Johns Hopkins University, Texas A&M University, the University of Maryland–Baltimore County, and Rice University

Center for Power Electronics Systems (Class of 1998)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA (lead institution) in partnership with North Carolina A&T State University, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and University of Wisconsin at Madison

At the end of their ten to eleven year life-cycle as NSF-supported Engineering Research Centers, most ERCs graduate from NSF support and become self-sustaining. Currently there are 27 graduated ERCs:

Bioengineering

ERC for Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies — Duke University & other North Carolina Institutions (established in 1987, graduated in 1998)

Biotechnology Process Engineering Center — Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (established in 1985, reestablished in 1994, graduated in 2005)

Center for Biofilm Engineering — Montana State University, Bozeman, MO (established in 1990, graduated in 2001)

VaNTH ERC for Bioengineering Educational Technologies — Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (lead institution) in partnership with Northwestern University, the Harvard University-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and the University of Texas at Austin (established in 1999, graduated in 2007)

Engineered Biomaterials Engineering Research Center — University of Washington, Seattle, WA (established in 1996, graduated in 2007)

Design and Manufacturing

ERC for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing — University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (lead institution) in partnership with Arizona State University, the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell University, MIT, and Stanford University (this ERC was jointly funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation) (established in 1996, graduated in 2006)
ERC for Engineering Design (now the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems) — Carnegie Mellon University (established in 1986, graduated in 1997)

ERC for Particle Science and Technology — University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (established in 1995, graduated in 2005)

Institute for Systems Research — University of Maryland/Harvard University (established in 1985, graduated in 1996)

Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems — University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (established in 1996, graduated in 2007)

Center for Interfacial Engineering — University of Minnesota (established in 1988, graduated in 1999)

ERC for Net Shape Manufacturing — Ohio State University (established in 1986, graduated in 1997)

Center for Intelligent Manufactured Systems, reestablished as the ERC for Collaborative Manufacturing — Purdue University (established in 1985, reestablished in 1994, and graduated in 1999)

Earthquake Engineering

Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research 
Center — University of California at Berkeley, CA (lead institution) in partnership with California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California at Davis, University of California at Irvine, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Diego, the University of Southern California, the University of Washington, and nine affiliate institutions (established in 1997, graduated in 2007)

Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research — Headquartered at the 
University at Buffalo, in partnership with Cornell University, University of Delaware, University of Nevada at Reno, and University of Southern California, as well as other collaborating institutions and private entities throughout the U.S. (established in 1997, graduated in 2007)

Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure

Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center — Brigham Young University/University of Utah (established in 1986, graduated in 1997)

Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems — Lehigh University (established in 1986, graduated in 1997)

Offshore Technology Research Center — Texas A&M University/University of Texas (established in 1988, graduated in 1999)

Microelectronics, Computing, and Communication

Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering — California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (established in 1995, graduated in 2005)

Data Storage Systems Center — Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (established in 1990, graduated in 2001)

Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center — University of Colorado/Colorado State University
(established in 1987, graduated in 1998)

Center for Telecommunications Research —Columbia University (established in 1985, graduated in 1996)

Packaging Research Center — Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (established in 1995, graduated in 2005)

Center for Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (established in 1986, graduated in 1997)

Center for Computational Field Simulation — Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS (established in 1990, graduated in 2001)

Center for Advanced Electronic Materials Processing — North Carolina State University & other North Carolina Institutions (established in 1988, graduated in 1999)

Integrated Media Systems Center — University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (established in 1996, graduated in 2007)

Phone:   (703) 292-8381
Fax:   (703) 292-9051
TDD:   (703) 292-5090
Homepage: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=EEC