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 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
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — including ERDC, its research and development center and UW–Madison education partner, and contracting pathways
• Army Medical Research and Development Command — plus the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) and the Defense Medical Research and Development Program
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) — the department’s lab for countering weapons of mass destruction and emerging threats, with a dedicated university research program
• 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

• Army Futures Command (AFC) — oversees Army modernization priorities and major R&D, much of it through 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

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
• 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 university programs, including the young investigator programs and DURIP equipment awards. See National Security 101 for how they fit together.

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
• 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