The Department of Defense (DoD) has announced awards for 147 university researchers, totaling $59 million, to finance the purchase of research equipment and enable universities to perform state-of-the-art research that augments current capabilities and develops new ones.
The awards – funded under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) – will finance the purchase of research equipment at 77 institutions across 30 states in fiscal year (FY) 2023 needed to perform cutting-edge research.
“DURIP awards provide essential research infrastructure to enable the pursuit of new knowledge. They help maintain the cutting-edge capabilities of our institutes of higher education,” Dr. Bindu Nair, director of the Basic Research Office at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the DoD, said in a press release.
The investments made under DURIP awards build enduring advantages that bolster U.S. strength and resilience, according to the Pentagon.
“These awards will sustain the scientific excellence of our universities, train the next generation STEM workforce, and facilitate scientific advances that will build a resilient defense ecosystem,” Nair said.
This year’s awards support the purchase of equipment to accelerate research relevant across DoD, including the design, development, and characterization of novel materials, quantum computing and quantum spectroscopy, microelectronics, geophysics, and human performance.
The DURIP award process – awarded annually and administered jointly by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, and the Office of Naval Research through a merit competition – is highly competitive.
The DoD seeks specific proposals from university investigators conducting foundational science and engineering research relevant to national defense. For the FY2023 competition, the research offices received 522 proposals requesting $171 million in total funding.
