FLC | DoD offers $48m for university equipment, instrumentation

DoD offers $48m for university equipment, instrumentation

April 17, 2020

The Department of Defense seeks proposals from universities to purchase equipment and instrumentation in support of research in areas of interest to the DoD. The deadline for proposals is May 15.

The DoD intends to award approximately $48 million under Defense University Instrumentation Program (DURIP) competition for fiscal year 2021, subject to availability of funds. This program will be supplemented by additional funding provided by the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). Additional awards may be made to principal investigators in DEPSCoR eligible states.

Each administering agency (Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research) will make grant awards to fund the purchase of research equipment or instrumentation costing $50,000 or more that cannot typically be purchased within the budgets of single-investigator awards. The DoD generally cannot make any individual award that exceeds more than $1,500,000 in DoD funding. Agencies can make awards to universities conducting, or demonstrably capable of conducting, research in areas of interest to the DoD with the new equipment or instrumentation proposed. DURIP awards are typically one year in length.

A central purpose of the DURIP is to provide equipment and instrumentation to enhance research related education in areas of interest and priority to the DoD. Therefore, a proposal must address the impact of the equipment or instrumentation on an institution’s ability to educate students through research in disciplines important to DoD missions.