Construction Research and Interdisciplinarity: Insights from NSF-Funded Awards

10 pages•Published: June 2, 2026

Abstract

This paper analyzes trends in construction-related research awards and the inclusion of an interdisciplinary approach in the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded research. The data included in this paper is from the NSF fiscal years from 1985 to 2024. The need for an interdisciplinary approach in construction research has been well-argued in research publications. An interdisciplinary approach in research emphasizes addressing research problems by teams or individuals that integrate information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines. In this paper, the NSF-funded awards that include the word “construction” in the title or abstract are analyzed into four categories: “construction” and “management” awards, “construction” and trending topic awards, “construction” and “workforce” awards, and “construction” and “education” awards. The data was further analyzed to investigate the occurrence of the word “interdisciplinary” in the title or abstract. The results show that the number of interdisciplinary awards in these four categories ranged from 3.7% to 13.1%, and the awarded amount ranged from 3% to 16.5% of the total awards in the respective categories. The study offers a comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation of interdisciplinarity in NSF-funded construction research in the United States.

Keyphrases: construction management, construction research trend, interdisciplinary, nsf funding, workforce

In: Wesley Collins, Anthony Perrenoud and John Posillico (editors). Proceedings of Associated Schools of Construction 62nd Annual International Conference, vol 7, pages 1072-1081.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/jsHz
	https://doi.org/10.29007/3q9g