Toolkit for Department of Defense Funding

Overview of DoD agencies
Culture and Mission
Funding Opportunities (AFOSR, ONR, ARO and DARPA)
Useful links for AFOSR, ONR, ARO and DARPA
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)

Overview of DoD agencies

The Department of Defense agencies that fund external research are:

Air Force Office of Sponsored Research (AFOSR),
Office of Naval Research (ONR),
Army Research Office (ARO)
Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
US Army Medical Research & Materiel Command, which oversees the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Army Corps of Engineers
National Security Agency (NSA)

Important web sites for each of these agencies are listed at the end of this toolkit.

Culture and Mission

All of the Department of Defense agencies are highly mission-oriented. The missions of AFOSR, ONR and ARO are related to the management of research that supports the goals and operations of their respective services (Air Force, Navy and Army, respectively). DARPA’s mission is to oversee high risk, high pay-off research that has the potential to greatly benefit any of the DoD’s branches. These DoD agencies therefore are looking for research that has a close connection to defense, and particular technologies and problems of interest are identified by the various funding agencies in Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs). The CDMRP’s mission is to support medical research “to eradicate diseases and support the warfighter.” As such, the CDMRP differs significantly in mission, culture and procedures from the other DoD agencies and will be discussed in a separate section below.

Usually, time horizons for research to be translated into applications is relatively short. Program Officers in the various DoD agencies are given a large amount of discretion in making funding decisions, and having a relationship with the Program Officer is extremely important to potential applicants. Establishing a relationship with a Program Officer is not difficult; they are often receptive to phone calls and e-mails and are usually happy to discuss a potential applicants’ research and whether it fits the agency’s needs; they also attend professional conferences on research topics of interest to their organizations. One caveat to this is that once a Request for Proposals (RFP) has been issued, Program Officers are usually not allowed to discuss the program in order to avoid the appearance of giving any of the applicants an unfair advantage. This is another reason that it is important to be engaged with the Program Officer early, before the RFP is issued.

Funding Opportunities (AFOSR, ONR, ARO and DARPA)

The Department of Defense classifies research according to how basic or applied it is.

6.1 - the most basic research and is usually the type of research that may be funded at a university
6.2 - applied research and may be a continuation of 6.1 research as it comes closer to application in a defense system. This type of research is often funded at a defense company, which may partner with a university for the more basic aspects of the research.
6.3 - application research, where a new technology is applied to a defense system and tested. This type of research is usually performed by a defense company, perhaps in partnership with the potential user.

Like many mission agencies, ARO, AFOSR and ONR fund both intramural (internally conducted) and extramural (externally conducted) research. It is always a good idea for researchers aspiring to win funding from these agencies to get to know the internal DoD researchers who are working in their research areas. It is often expected that externally funded projects will be conducted in a collaborative fashion with DoD scientists; e.g., building on their results, utilizing specialized testing equipment at DoD labs, or designing components or systems based on criteria specified by DoD scientists. Furthermore, these DoD scientists are often involved in the proposal review process; therefore, having prior connections can enhance competitiveness of a proposal.

The defense agencies (with the exception of the CDMRP) announce funding opportunities in a variety of ways, including Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) – each agency typically issues a “Long Range BAA,” which outlines technical research interests and priorities of the agency over a several-year range covered by the BAA, as well as targeted BAAs, which address more specific competitions and other targeted solicitations. University research is often funded through unsolicited proposals based on the Long Range BAA. Web sites for the Long Range BAAs for each Research Office are given below by agency. Solicitations for programs targeted specifically or predominately for University researchers are listed in the section on targeted programs below.

DARPA differs from ARO, AFOSR and ONR in that its mission benefits all areas of defense. DARPA’s mission, according to its website, is “to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use.” DARPA does not conduct intramural research, but each of its Program Managers is given an extraordinary amount of autonomy in setting research priorities and making funding decisions. The Program Managers are often well-known researchers in the technical field they are overseeing and very often rotate into and out of their position at DARPA from academia or industry. As in dealing with the other research offices, it is extremely important to develop a relationship with the DARPA Program Manager before submitting a proposal. Furthermore, since DARPA’s interests lie in transitioning new technology into military use as quickly as possible, faculty researchers are well-advised to team with defense industry or defense lab researchers when proposing new research.

Unsolicited Proposals

Typically, a researcher who would like to propose a research project addressing research priorities outlined in the Long Range BAA contacts the Program Officer to discuss his/her project idea. If the Program Officer is interested, he or she will request a white paper (also called a preliminary proposal). White papers are short summaries of the project idea, and rules for white paper length and format can be found in the agency long range BAA or will be designated by the Program Officer. If the Program Officer likes the white paper, he or she will request a full proposal.

Targeted Programs

The programs listed below are aimed specifically or predominately at university researchers or at partnerships that may include university researchers. In competing for most of these programs, it is extremely helpful to have already developed a relationship with a DoD program officer and preferably to have been funded by the DoD on a related research project. It should be noted that one of the best ways to connect with an defense agency is to participate in a summer faculty research program at that agency, if they offer one.

Programs for universities: http://www.acq.osd.mil/index.html

Other programs that may include industry/university partnerships:

Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR)
Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
Targeted programs

All funding opportunities for DoD are included in the Grants.gov web page - select Department of Defense under “Agency” to see all recent funding opportunities issued by DoD agencies.

Useful links for AFOSR, ONR, ARO and DARPA

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

Homepage: http://www.afosr.af.mil/
Organization: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9444
Funding Opportunity Websites: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8981
Research Areas: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8973
General Research Interests Broad Agency Announcement: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090319-037.pdf
AFOSR Broad Agency Announcements: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8127

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Homepage: http://www.onr.navy.mil/en.aspx
Funding Opportunity Websites: http://www.onr.navy.mil/Contracts-Grants/Funding-Opportunities.aspx
University and education related programs: http://www.onr.navy.mil/Education-Outreach.aspx
Proposal/white paper Formatting requirements: http://www.onr.navy.mil/Contracts-Grants/submit-proposal/grants-proposal/grants-gov.aspx

Army Research Office (ARO)

Homepage: www.aro.army.mil

Defense Advanced Research Projects Office (DARPA)

Homepage: www.darpa.mil
Organization: http://www.darpa.mil/about.html
Funding Opportunity Websites: http://www.darpa.mil/funding_opportunities.html

Army Corps of Engineers

Home page: http://www.usace.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx

National Security Agency

Home page: http://www.nsa.gov/index.shtml

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)

Home page: http://cdmrp.army.mil/default.htm
Mission: http://cdmrp.army.mil/aboutus.htm
Organization: http://cdmrp.army.mil/ourteam.htm
Awards Search: http://cdmrp.army.mil/search.aspx

Culture and Organization

The culture and operating procedures of the CDMRP are closer to those of the basic research agencies such as NSF and NIH than those of DoD, with the exception that the mission and the vision of the office are very closely tied to Congressional direction and can therefore change significantly from year to year.

According to the CDMRP's website, "dollars for the CDMRP are not considered part of the DoD's mission, and are therefore not included in the DoD's requested budget. Rather, the dollars to fund CDMRP are added every year during the budget approval cycle by the members of the House or Senate, in response to requests by consumer advocates and disease survivers."

More information on the funding process can be found at http://cdmrp.army.mil/fundingprocess.htm

Currently, the CDMRP has eight research programs: seven focus on research to cure a selct set of diseases, as selected by the U.S Congress, and the eighth program focuses on addressing minority and undeserved populations:

Breast Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Ovarian Cancer
Neurofibromatosis
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex
Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
Prion Diseases
Minority and Undeserved Populations

Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities are made public via Program Announcements, which can be found at the websites for each of the research programs or at the grants.gov site. The CDMRP uses a wide range of funding mechanisms, all of which are listed in the "Award Mechanisms" pull down menu on the award search site at http://cdmrp.army.mil/scripts/search.asp. Not all award mechanisms are available for all resecrh prgrams; eacg program has a web site describing awards available through that program.

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