The Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE) advises the executive and legislative branches of government, other governmental and private sector organizations, and the general public on questions of technology, science, and public policy applied to:

• the design, construction, operations, maintenance, security, and evaluation of buildings, facilities, and infrastructure systems;
• the relationship between the constructed and natural environments and their interaction with human activities;
• the effects of natural and manmade hazards on constructed facilities and infrastructure
• the interdependencies of infrastructure systems (power, water, transportation, telecommunications, wastewater, buildings) and the potential for cascading failures

The BICE brings together in an independent forum expertise from a wide range of scientific, engineering, and social science disciplines to address problems and issues in these areas. It provides a unique structure to respond to specific requests from government, or to act on its own initiative with public or private sector support. To respond to requests, the BICE oversees committee activities involving studies, briefings, workshops, symposia, and a variety of information dissemination activities.
Established in 1946 as the Building Research Advisory Board, BICE and its predecessor organizations have been the principal units of the NRC concerned with the built environment. Although advisory services make up the bulk of BICE activities, a number of specific programs have been created and maintained over the years, the most significant and longest running of which is the Federal Facilities Council.

Federal Facilities Council

The Federal Facilities Council (FFC) was established in 1953 as the Federal Construction Council. It operates under the auspices of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE) of the National Research Council, the principal operating agency of the National Academies and the National Academy of Engineering. The FFC's mission is to identify and advance technologies, processes, and management practices that improve the performance of federal facilities over their entire life-cycle, from planning to disposal.

The FFC fulfills its mission by (1) networking/sharing information among the agencies on a regular basis in a neutral forum; and (2) leveraging funding for studies, conferences, forums on topics of interest to the members. Typically, the annual FFC program will include initiation/completion of a policy study conducted by a blue ribbon panel of experts, the initiation/completion of 1-2 technical studies, and 2-5 forums.To facilitate networking, the FFC supports 5 standing committees which meet quarterly for a total of 20 one-half day meetings per year. The majority of meetings include presentations by guest speakers from the federal community, academia, and the private sector.