The Department of Defense will issue 23 awards totaling more than $155 million to academic institutions across the country over the next five years.
The DOD’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative will support the research of teams of investigators whose backgrounds intersect multiple traditional science and engineering disciplines in order to accelerate research progress. The awards will be made by the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and are subject to successful negotiation between the institution and DOD.
“Research funded by the MURI program opens up entirely new areas of scientific inquiry, and builds the foundation for future capabilities that will benefit our joint forces,” said Zachary Lemnios, the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering. “We are also employing new processes to share research results with our industry partners at a much earlier point to accelerate the transition of concepts from research to end-use products.”
The awards are the result of the fiscal 2012 competition that ARO, ONR and AFOSR conducted under the DOD MURI program. Based on proposals selected in the fiscal 2012 competition, a total of 63 academic institutions are expected to participate in the 23 research efforts.
