DOD Awards $149 Million in University Research Initiative Contracts

The Department of Defense has announced it will issue 22 awards totaling $149 million over the next five years to academic institutions to perform multidisciplinary basic research. The Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program supports research by teams of investigators that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline in order to accelerate research progress. Most of the program's efforts involve researchers from multiple academic institutions and academic departments.

This year for the first time, topical areas were identified for joint U.S.-United Kingdom academic collaborative proposals, with the U.K. collaborators funded by the U.K. government. The competitive process resulted in two joint U.S.-UK teams selected for awards.

The Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Office of Naval Research solicited proposals in 19 topics important to DOD and the military services and received a total of 289 white papers, which were followed by 76 proposals. The awards were selected based on merit review by a panel of experts and are subject to successful negotiation between the institution and DOD. The awards announced today are for a five year period subject to availability of appropriations and satisfactory research progress.