Multiple contractors have partnered with universities to support a Defense Department pilot program that will focus on accelerating research into military technology platforms.
DoD said Tuesday it chose five industry-academic teams to participate in the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative, which aims to address technological gaps and complement the Pentagon’s other basic research programs that include the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative and the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program.
Selected teams will receive up to $1.5 million to facilitate a two-year research on the end-use applications of technologies such as power beaming, highly maneuverable autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, soft active composite materials, metamaterial-based antennas and alternate categories that do not belong to any particular domain.
The designated leaders for the five teams are:
- Boeing, Arizona State University and Syracuse University
- Stanford University and Skydio
- Northwestern University and TERA-print
- Duke University, University of Washington and Northrop Grumman
- Stanford University, University of California -Â Merced and Visor Corp.
The Pentagon’s Basic Research Office will sponsor the collaborative effort while research offices of the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army will jointly administer the initiative.