The Department of War is injecting $19.2 million into academic research across underrepresented regions of the United States, aiming to build defense capabilities in states that have historically received less funding for military science programs.
The funding, announced through the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR), will support 29 collaborative teams across 15 states including Alabama, Hawai’i, Montana, and Wisconsin. The initiative specifically targets institutions in areas where DoW research infrastructure has been historically underdeveloped despite potential talent and resources.
Building Defense Research Beyond Traditional Hubs
“The Department’s technology progress relies on a network of creative and insightful academics in every state of the nation,” said Dr. David Montgomery, acting director of DoW’s Basic Research Office. “DEPSCoR aims to enhance the science and engineering foundations for these researchers and their institutions, while encouraging more researchers to pursue investigations in DoW-relevant areas. It is crucial that we build defense research infrastructure that strategically develops and uses the vast capabilities found across the country,” he explained.
From a competitive field of over 120 submissions, military service experts selected 27 teams for the Research Collaboration competition. Each team will receive up to $600,000 distributed over three years to pursue science and engineering projects with potential defense applications, according to program documents.
Why focus on these particular states? The eligibility criteria reveals the strategic thinking behind the program. DEPSCoR targets 35 states plus Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands based on a three-year average of DoD Science and Engineering Research and Development funding levels at higher education institutions in those regions.
Capacity Building Beyond Research
Perhaps most notable are the program’s two Capacity Building awards, which go beyond funding individual research projects. Boise State University and the University of Iowa each secured substantial grants of up to $1.5 million over two years, selected from more than 30 competing proposals.
These capacity-building funds aren’t just about immediate research results. They’re designed to create lasting infrastructure that will make these institutions more competitive for defense-related funding in the future, as outlined in the program guidelines.
The selected states represent a geographic diversity that reflects the program’s mission. Connecticut and Rhode Island sit alongside Midwestern states like Iowa and Nebraska, Mountain West states including Montana, and even Hawaii in the Pacific — creating what amounts to a national network of defense research capabilities outside the traditional powerhouse institutions.
Can these investments meaningfully shift the balance of defense innovation? That remains to be seen, but the initiative represents a significant acknowledgment that untapped potential exists throughout the country’s academic landscape.
“Consistent with these long-term objectives of building research infrastructure, the DoD intends to competitively make, and fund from fiscal year 2024 appropriations, multiyear awards for capacity building in IHEs with basic research areas relevant to the DoD’s mission and which are important to national security,” the Department stated in its announcement.
For smaller research institutions that have struggled to compete with elite universities for defense dollars, DEPSCoR represents not just funding, but recognition that national security innovation shouldn’t be concentrated in a handful of coastal research hubs.
