Director of Defense Research and Engineering Anita Jones,
today announced plans to award $44.5 million to academic
institutions to support the purchase of research instrumentation.
The 273 awards to 105 academic institutions are expected to range
from $47,000 to $700,000 and average $163,000.
All awards are
subject to the successful completion of negotiations between
Department of Defense research offices and the academic
institutions.
The awards are being made under the Defense University
Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP).
The DURIP supports the
purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current
university capabilities or develops new university capabilities
to perform cutting-edge defense research.
The DURIP meets a
critical need, by enabling DoD-supported university researchers
to purchase scientific equipment that costs more than $50,000.
The researchers normally have difficulty purchasing instruments
that cost that much, under their research contracts and grants.
Today's announcement is the result of a merit competition
for DURIP funding conducted by four research offices: the Army
Research Office, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of
Scientific Research, and Science and Technology Directorate of
the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
The offices
solicited proposals from university researchers working in
selected areas of importance to the DoD, such as:
High-Performance Computing
Propulsion
Electronics and Electromagnetics (e.g., millimeter-wave
circuits; low-power circuits for mobile power
applications; and high-power and radio-frequency
circuits for directed-energy plasma science)
Advanced Materials (e.g., bioengineered or biomimetic
materials; nanoscale assembly; nonequilibrium
processing; and polymers for photonic materials and
chemically resistant, barrier layers)
Virtual-reality and Three-Dimensional Display Systems
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sensors
In response to the solicitation, the research offices received
more than 500 proposals requesting more than $100 million in
support for research equipment.
Media may obtain the list of winning proposers from the
Directoriate for Defense Information, room 2E765, Pentagon,
Washington, D.C. 20301-1400, or by calling (703)695-0192.
Others
may contact (703)697-5737.
