The Department of Defense will provide a total of $17.6 million in funding under the Defense Establishment Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). The purpose of this program is to strengthen basic research infrastructure in underutilized state and territory higher education institutions.
The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that 27 teams from academia have been selected as program beneficiaries. This includes 25 teams from the DEPSCoR Research Collaboration competition and 2 teams from the DEPSCoR Capacity Building competition.
Research collaboration competitions are designed to support scientific and engineering research relevant to the needs of the Department of Defense, and capacity-building competitions are designed to strengthen the research and development capabilities of higher education institutions in eligible states and territories.
Each winning research collaboration team will receive up to $600,000 over three years, and each capacity development team will receive up to $1.5 million over two years.
Bindu Nair, Director of the Department of Defense Basic Research, explained the goals of DEPSCoR:[The program] In the long term, we aim to increase the number of scholars pursuing research in Department of Defense-related fields while strengthening the agency's scientific and engineering capabilities. ”
“It is critical that we build a Department of Defense research infrastructure that strategically leverages the research capabilities that exist across the country,” Nile added.
