$38.7 Million Awarded to Universities for Research Equipment

March 26, 2010 - The Department of Defense (DoD) today announced plans to award $38.7 million to academic institutions to support the purchase of research instrumentation. The 166 awards to 96 academic institutions are being made under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP). The awards are expected to range from $50,000 to $930,000 and average approximately $235,000. All awards are subject to the successful completion of negotiations between DoD research offices and the academic institutions.

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. DURIP meets a critical need by enabling university researchers to purchase scientific equipment costing $50,000 or more to conduct DoD-relevant research. Researchers generally have difficulty purchasing instruments costing that much under research contracts and grants.

These planned awards are the result of a merit competition for DURIP funding conducted by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Each office requested proposals from university investigators conducting science and engineering research of importance to DoD. This includes research underpinning advances in surface chemistry and physics, scientific computing and networks, electronics and electro-optics, neuroscience, fluid dynamics and propulsion, and ocean science and engineering. In response to the requests, the research offices collectively received more than 840 proposals requesting $267 million in support for research equipment.