Basic Research Initiatives

Mission— Basic Research Initiatives

Basic research is a process of exploration and discovery, yielding disruptive, non-incremental advances that can improve or radically change military capabilities, strategy, and operations, towards realizing overwhelming technology advantage against competitors. It is a mission-oriented activity that provides the Department of Defense (DoD) with a deep and broad awareness of research areas to explore and invest in. These areas span a wide range of fundamental physical sciences (e.g., chemistry, biology, materials, mathematics, computer science, etc.) as well as fundamental research in engineering sciences that can catalyze the emergence of new technologies at scale (e.g., new materials or information systems). Basic research generates the critical technical knowledge that enables the ideation, design and realization of future DoD capabilities, including the exploration of new concepts of warfare. Basic research also sustains the scientific and engineering communities and creates new generations of a talented workforce that can support the DoD for the next decades. The Basic Research Initiatives Program includes programs and pilots designed to accomplish these objectives.

Mission— Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship

The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program supports world-class researchers in scientific areas of critical importance to the DoD and ensures the cultivation of exceptional talent. Fellows’ research spans a broad set of emerging scientific areas with transformative potential, including quantum information science, novel engineered materials, cognitive neuroscience and human-machine interfaces, engineering biology, applied and computational mathematics, networks, machine learning and artificial intelligence, manufacturing science, and others. The prestigious research program delivers the most innovative and transformational scientific ideas of relevance to the DoD, from the top scientists in the Nation. The program fosters close connections between academia and the defense science and engineering (S&E) enterprise, a primary goal of Strategic Support for Basic Research (SSBR) efforts. Fellows provide the Department the deep scientific expertise from today’s leading research universities and collaborate with defense scientists and engineers. This program actively engages and coordinates basic research across the Department. The project includes support for the Laboratory-University Collaboration Initiative (LUCI) program, which is designed to team scientists in the DoD laboratories with top academic researchers from the programs sponsored or overseen by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (in particular, the VBFF fellows), in order to collaboratively perform research on a topic of their choice and explore early adoption of the scientific discoveries for military applications, platforms and systems, operations, and strategic roadmaps. Three-year grants allow a deep exchange of ideas between academic and DoD research communities, bring the most recent scientific breakthroughs closer to DoD relevance, and greatly expand the skills and knowledge of the S&E workforce within the laboratories. The project also supports the Bush Fellows Research Study Team (BRFST) program, designed to allow selected leaders in the academic research community to engage with the DoD at high levels, including briefings from MAJCOMs and site visits to military installations. This program brings deeper understanding of military operations and strategic vision to selected US academic researchers, in order to enhance the creation of out-of-the-box, innovative solutions and the growth of intellectual talent attuned to DoD mission needs. Extension of this program will enhance relevance of university-based research to the military mission.

Mission— Minerva Research Initiative

The Minerva Research Initiative supported social science research aimed at improving our basic understanding of security, broadly defined. All supported projects were university-based and unclassified. The goal was to improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S.

Mission— Basic Research Initiatives

The Basic Research Initiatives Project supports oversight of basic research throughout the Department, as well as initiatives and pilot programs, in order to create conditions for defense basic research investments to produce high-payoff, transformative scientific breakthroughs for the Department. The project supports the five Basic Research Office (BRO) strategic goals: (1) support the technology priorities set by the Department of Defense (OSD); (2) coordinate and conduct oversight of DoD-wide basic research programs; (3) improve the science and engineering workforce via tailored programs and public outreach; (4) enhance university-industry and university-government collaboration; and (5) engage with the academic research community and international partners. This Project includes Strategic Support for Basic Research (SSBR), which sustains the operations of the BRO and creates conditions for research policies and initiatives to be formulated and instantiated. It also includes several pilot programs and initiatives, including the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR), international research collaboration, and cross-agency joint programs.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (5)