WASHINGTON, USA — Continuing its long history of successful collaboration with the scientific community, the Department of Defense announced awards to 172 university researchers totaling nearly $49 million under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. These grants will benefit 91 institutions across 40 states in the fiscal year 2020.
The Department of Defense is a committed participant in and champion of the country’s scientific ecosystem. Through DURIP, the Department supports purchases of major research equipment to augment current and develop new capabilities. This effort enables universities to perform cutting-edge research that boosts the United States’ technological edge while ensuring that our future science, technology, engineering and math workforce remains second to none.
“These awards provide research infrastructure to enable the most creative scientific minds in the country to extend the boundaries of science and technology,” said Dr Mitch Nikolich, director of defense research and engineering for research and technology. “The awards will maintain the cutting-edge capabilities of our universities and the outstanding training of our STEM workforce. They will facilitate scientific advances that will support unprecedented military capabilities for our country.”
The annual DURIP award process is highly competitive. The program is administered through a merit competition jointly conducted by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The Department seeks specific proposals from university investigators conducting foundational science and engineering research of importance to national defense.
In the fiscal year 2020 competition, the three military service research offices received 724 proposals requesting nearly $295 million in funding. Selections made by the service research offices are subject to the successful completion of negotiations with the academic institutions.
