Resources

The fastest-moving corner of the defense enterprise — built to connect new performers with mission problems.

• DoD Innovation Pathways — a guided map of the department’s innovation ecosystem, built to help you find the right opportunity
• DoD SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) — the front door for small-business and startup research funding; STTR requires a university partner
• Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) — accelerating commercial technology into the mission; DIU absorbed the National Security Innovation Network’s university-facing programs in 2024
• AFWERX — the Air Force’s innovation arm, connecting commercial and academic innovators with Air Force and Space Force needs
• DEFENSEWERX — innovation hubs serving mission commands; ForwardWERX is the Wisconsin National Guard’s own innovation incubator

• Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) — including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) for basic science (AFOSR also manages the Space Force’s basic research portfolio) and the AFRL Midwest Regional Hub, built to connect midwestern universities and industry with Air Force needs
• DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) — see how to collaborate and the Army Research Office (ARO) for basic research
• Office of Naval Research (ONR) — the Navy and Marine Corps science and technology enterprise, organized into program codes with distinct research areas and program officers; the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the Navy’s corporate laboratory, from basic research through prototyping
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — including ERDC, its research and development center and UW–Madison education partner, and contracting pathways
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) — the department’s lab for countering weapons of mass destruction and emerging threats, with a dedicated university research program

• Army Futures and Concepts Command — the modernization and concepts arm of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command (T2COM), which absorbed Army Futures Command and TRADOC in October 2025 and now oversees Army modernization priorities, science and technology, and the Cross Functional Teams
• Army AI Integration Center (AI2C) — the Army’s AI hub and UW–Madison’s partner in the MS in Data Engineering; seeks research proposals in transformative AI
• Army Applications Laboratory (AAL) — connecting Army problems with commercial and academic solutions

Defense health research is funded through the Defense Health Program, with additional support from the Services, DARPA, and DTRA. Priorities span infectious disease, hemorrhage control and combat casualty care, traumatic brain injury, mental health, pain and burn care, CBRN threats, health IT, and human performance.

• Medical Research and Development Command (MRDC) — the DoD’s medical research command, whose standing Broad Agency Announcement accepts basic and applied research proposals across its core program areas: combat casualty care, military infectious diseases, military operational medicine, clinical and rehabilitative medicine, and chemical-biological defense
• Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) — since 1992, more than $21 billion in congressionally appropriated, peer-reviewed research; Congress sets the topics each year, and open competitions decide the awards. A pre-application through eBRAP is required, and reviewers weigh a lay abstract and military relevance heavily
• Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) — CDMRP’s broadest program: dozens of congressionally designated topic areas each year, from pulmonary fibrosis and hemorrhage control to infectious disease and musculoskeletal injury; see the topic areas by year
• Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) — plus CDMRP’s disease-specific programs in breast, prostate, lung, kidney, ovarian, and rare cancers; traumatic brain injury and psychological health; orthopaedics; burns; ALS; and more. Current funding opportunities and the CDMRP webinar series explain the mechanisms
• Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) — the biomedical OTA consortium working with agencies across the Department of Defense and beyond to move medical technologies from lab to fielding, for military and civilian health alike; UW–Madison is a member
• Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) — the DoD’s premier medical research meeting, held each fall, and the best place to meet CDMRP and military health program officials; DTRA’s biennial Chemical and Biological Defense S&T Conference plays the same role for CBRN research

One rule that differs from the rest of DoD: CDMRP program staff cannot discuss proposals while a solicitation is open. Engage at MHSRS and through the webinars, then let the pre-application do the talking.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funds high-risk, high-payoff research through program managers with wide latitude — the original moonshot agency.

• DARPA — agency home
• Working with DARPA — open opportunities, office BAAs, and the Young Faculty Award
• ERIS — the Expedited Research Implementation Series — DARPA’s standing open marketplace for breakthrough technologies: submit a short video pitch, get assessed within weeks, and reach rapid acquisition pathways — a low-barrier first contact with the agency, open to academia
• Young Faculty Award & Innovation Fellowship — the Young Faculty Award introduces early-career faculty to DARPA’s mission with multi-year awards across the agency’s offices; the DARPA Innovation Fellowship places early-career scientists and engineers in two-year positions at the agency
• The Heilmeier Catechism — the eight questions DARPA uses to evaluate every proposed program, written by a former director — answer them before you write any white paper, for any sponsor

The Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative funds university teams on hard cross-disciplinary basic research problems — among the most prestigious awards in defense science. Each service runs its own competition:

• ONR — MURI
• AFOSR — University Research Initiatives
• ARO — MURI

Wisconsin is an eligible state for DEPSCoR — a dedicated on-ramp for faculty new to DoD funding — and the OUSD(R&E) Basic Research Office is the home of the department’s signature university programs: the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (DoD’s most prestigious single-investigator award, up to $3 million over five years), DURIP equipment awards, and the Young Investigator Programs run by ONR, AFOSR, and ARO for early-career faculty. For students, the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship and the SMART scholarship-for-service program are the flagship pathways, with more at DoD STEM. See National Security 101 for how they fit together.

The DoD’s environmental research programs fund work on installation resilience, land and water management, contaminant cleanup, and climate adaptation, across defense installations and ranges.

• Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) — basic and applied environmental research, with annual solicitations built around published Statements of Need; the SERDP Exploratory Development (SEED) mechanism funds one-year exploratory projects
• Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) — demonstration and validation of environmental technologies on DoD installations, the bridge from research to fielded practice

As with CDMRP, program managers cannot discuss proposals while a Statement of Need is open, except to clarify the solicitation.

UW–Madison is a founding member of the USCYBERCOM Academic Engagement Network — bringing the campus community communications on the evolving cyberspace domain, invitations to engagements on Cyber Command’s hardest technical and policy problems, access to programs like the University Consortium for Cybersecurity, and guest expertise on cyber strategy, law, and workforce.

• Academic Engagement Network
• U.S. Cyber Command

UW–Madison is a founding member of the Intelligence and Security University Research Enterprise (INSURE), the academic consortium of the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) — the IC’s dedicated university-affiliated research center. Funding flows through direct sponsor engagement, joint program development across member institutions, and government requests that need consortium strengths.

• About ARLIS
• Mission areas
• RISC internships for students

• IARPA — the IC’s advanced research agency; see how to engage
• National Security Agency — academic programs and research partnerships
• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — academic engagement
• National Reconnaissance Office — working with NRO, including the Director’s Innovation Initiative, a high-risk, high-payoff research program open to academia
• Defense Intelligence Agency — innovation office

DOE’s science enterprise spans the national laboratories — whose Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) programs fund collaborations with university partners:

• Sandia National Laboratories LDRD — a WINS partner lab
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LDRD
• Los Alamos National Laboratory directed R&D
• Nevada National Security Sites SDRD
• ARPA-E — advanced research projects for energy
• National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — nuclear security, nonproliferation, and the consortium programs that fund university research
• Genesis Mission — DOE’s national initiative uniting the laboratories, industry, and academia to accelerate AI-driven science for discovery, energy, and security

• DHS Science & Technology Long-Range BAA — standing open call; submit via the LRBAA portal
• USDA National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) — the nation’s premier animal-disease defense laboratory; see research areas and opportunity listings
• BARDA — the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, funding medical countermeasures from vaccines and therapeutics to diagnostics