[Infowarrior] - DoD Announces $400 Million Investment To Basic Research

[Richard Forno]

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12337

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 	No. 938-08
November 07, 2008

DoD Announces $400 Million Investment To Basic Research

The Department of Defense today announced plans to invest an  
additional $400 million over the next five years to support basic  
research at academic institutions.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates secured the additional funding in  
the fiscal 2009 President's budget request to Congress to expand  
research into new and emerging scientific areas and to foster  
fundamental discoveries related to the DoD's most challenging  
technical problems. The DoD published a ‘Strategic Plan For Basic  
Research’ last summer, which built the case for this effort.  
Acknowledging this need, Congress authorized and appropriated funds to  
support these significant increases in basic research investment.

By making these additional investments, the DoD aims to "sustain and  
strengthen the nation's commitment to long-term basic research", as  
recommended by the National Research Council's ‘Rising Above the  
Gathering Storm’ report and to address similar recommendations from  
numerous other independent national security and scientific advisory  
groups.

"These new grants will lead to discoveries in fundamental fields which  
underpin many of the technologically complex systems fielded in  
today's Armed Forces,” said William Rees, Jr., the deputy under  
secretary of defense for laboratories and basic sciences.

The anticipated awards will be intended for individual investigators  
and provide sufficient funding to support a cadre of graduate students  
working with the faculty member to make substantial and sustained  
progress in research areas of importance to the DoD. Merit-based  
awards, based on peer review, will support projects beginning in  
fiscal 2009 that will be funded for five years. Exceptionally  
meritorious projects that can be completed in less time will also be  
considered for funding.

Projects will be based on numerous academic disciplines, including:  
physics, ocean science, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials  
science, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering,  
information sciences, civil engineering, mathematics, chemical  
engineering, geosciences, atmospheric science, and aeronautical  
engineering.

Topics for the initial funding will focus on the following areas of  
technical challenge: counter weapons of mass destruction (WMD),  
network sciences, energy and power management, quantum information  
sciences, human sciences, science of autonomy, information assurance,  
biosensors and bio-inspired systems, information fusion and decision  
science, and energy and power management.

DoD research offices that will make the awards, contingent upon the  
receipt and evaluation of sufficiently high quality proposals, include  
the Army Research Office http://www.aro.army.mil/ , the Office of  
Naval Research http://www.onr.navy.mil/  and the Air Force Office of  
Scientific Research http://www.afosr.af.mil/ .

Information on specific program announcements and solicitations  
supported by this funding can be found at http://www.grants.gov , as  
well as at the respective research office
Web sites.