Defense Dept. mounts initiative to support university-industry research and cooperation
NewsJanuary 04, 2018
ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced an award competition for the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI), a pilot program that supports university-industry collaboration in the area of use-inspired basic research. DESI is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and executed in collaboration with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Army Research Office.
According to the DoD announcement of the competition, the initiative is themed around technologies to enable a new generation of sensing, mobility, and autonomy; research topics will include autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs), power beaming, soft active composites, and metamaterial?based antennas. Additional topics suggested by applicants will also be considered.
DESI incentivizes use-inspired basic research, which can be explained as scientific study directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications. Projects funded by DESI are aimed at bringing together university and industry teams with the aim of discovering novel solutions to challenging defense and national-security problems. Through these projects and the resultant solutions, DESI intends to accelerate the impact of basic research results on defense capabilities, inform existing or future acquisition programs, and support sustainable collaboration between U.S. colleges and universities and the private sector.
For more information on the DESI, please see the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) FA9550-18-S-B001.
