U.S. Department of War Provides $150 Million for University Multidisciplinary Research, Selects 20 Teams: "Forging Breakthroughs Through Bold Convergence Research"

Washington, U.S.

The U.S. Department of War has announced a total of $150 million in research funding awards under the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) for defense-related basic research. In an October 29 (local time) press release, the Department of War stated that the awards, averaging $7.5 million each over five years, will support 20 research teams across 57 academic institutions in the United States, contingent on satisfactory research progress and the availability of funds.

"The MURI program brings together multidisciplinary teams of researchers from institutions across the country to address some of our most challenging scientific problems," said Jason Day, Director of Research Policy in the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. Day added, "By leveraging diverse perspectives and approaches, MURI projects foster bold, cross-disciplinary research that can ignite breakthroughs and push the boundaries of what is possible."

Launched in 1985... Achievements in Solid-Acid Fuel Cells, Nano X-ray Imaging, and Microcontact Printing

The Department of War noted that since its inception in 1985, the MURI program has leveraged teams of researchers across diverse disciplines to generate collective insights and accelerate the development of advanced technologies aimed at resolving unique challenges facing the Department of War. The highly competitive program, the department explained, complements single-investigator basic research grants, contributing to current and future military capabilities while producing numerous commercial sector applications.

Among MURI's notable achievements, the Department of War cited breakthroughs in solid-acid fuel cells, novel nanoscale X-ray imaging techniques that have enabled advances in battery design and microelectronics, and progress in self-assembling materials. Research in self-assembling materials led to the first demonstration of microcontact printing, a technique now widely utilized across microelectronics, surface chemistry, and cell biology, the department stated.

According to the Department of War, the Army Research Office (ARO), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) solicited proposals for Fiscal Year 2026 projects in subject areas of strategic importance to the Department of War. After a merit-based evaluation of 451 white papers, an expert panel narrowed the pool to 74 formal proposals, ultimately selecting the final 20 projects, the department said.

Solicitation Notice: "Tackling What Has Never Been Done Before Through High-Risk Basic Research"

The Fiscal Year 2026 MURI Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), issued jointly by the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, stated that the program addresses high-risk basic research aimed at "understanding or achieving something that has never been done before." The notice emphasized that MURI has consistently produced significant scientific breakthroughs with far-reaching impacts across scientific disciplines, economic growth, and revolutionary new military technologies, highlighting that close project management and active research guidance by military service program managers are critical to its success.

The notice stated that MURI supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education that is of potential interest to the Department of Defense, focusing on multidisciplinary research where the interaction of two or more traditional academic disciplines accelerates progress in defense areas of interest. The notice estimated the total value of awards over five years through this solicitation at approximately $170 million, subject to future appropriations, with typical awards up to $1.5 million per year per project. It added that collaborative proposals from teams of university researchers are anticipated when the required expertise is distributed across multiple universities, complementing single-investigator programs by supporting multidisciplinary research teams.

In the solicitation, the Army Research Office explained regarding the fungal networks topic that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by mycorrhizal fungi serve as long-range signals, and that intercepting and interpreting these signals could enable passive, stand-off environmental monitoring. The Office of Naval Research, addressing the hypersonics topic, noted that during hypersonic flight, shock-layer gas temperatures exceed 10,000 Kelvin and atomic oxygen in the boundary layer substantially enhances oxidation of thermal protection system (TPS) materials. ONR stated that this topic aims to achieve a fundamental understanding necessary for developing shape-stable thermal protection systems by focusing on minimizing ablation rather than solely preventing oxidation.

AFOSR: Atmospheric Lidar, Ethical Autonomous Learning, Structured Light, Atomic Metasurfaces, and Remote Epitaxy

According to the list of FY2026 MURI selected projects released by the Department of War, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research is sponsoring topics 1 through 5. Under the topic "Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Characterization and Modeling," Principal Investigator Xinzhao Chu's team at the University of Colorado Boulder, in collaboration with the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Utah, will conduct advanced lidar observations, laboratory chemistry research, and predictive modeling to characterize metallic constituents, transport, and plasma-neutral coupling in this region.

Ufuk Topcu's team at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, George Mason University, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Virginia, will investigate design and test, evaluation, validation, and verification (TEV&V) for adaptive ethical reasoning under the topic "Ethical Components and Adaptive Learning Systems." Howard Milchberg's team at the University of Maryland, College Park, along with the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, Duke University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Rochester, will study the physics and applications of spatiotemporally structured high-intensity optical fields under the topic "Structured Light for High-Intensity Laser-Matter Interactions."

Alexander Burgers' team at the University of Michigan, partnering with the University of Colorado Boulder, Purdue University, and the University of Arizona, will explore novel quantum optics using dynamically controlled atomic metasurfaces under the topic "Optics of Highly Dynamic Reconfigurable Atomic/Molecular Arrays (OhDRAMA)," while Jeehwan Kim's team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), together with Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Minnesota, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Rice University, will examine interfacial mechanisms, defects, and novel heterostructures in remote epitaxy.

ARO: Fungal Network Communications, Polymer Degradation, Spatiotemporal Metamaterials, and Quantum Entanglement

The Army Research Office is sponsoring topics 6 through 13. Holly Moeller's team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the "Fungalphabet" topic with the University of California, Davis, and North Carolina State University, will study manipulating and encrypting fungal communication (MEFCON). ARO characterized this topic as deciphering the covert language of fungal networks for environmental intelligence. Bradley Olsen's team at MIT, together with Stanford University, the University of Delaware, and the University of Washington, will engineer biological systems to cleave carbon-carbon bonds in recalcitrant polymer backbones. Nader Engheta's team at the University of Pennsylvania, with the Research Foundation of CUNY, Stanford University, Cornell University, Northeastern University, and Purdue University, will research N-dimensional spacetime metamaterials for multidimensional wave transformations.

Nirmal Ghimire's team at the University of Notre Dame, alongside George Mason University, Texas A&M University, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan, will pursue research on low-dimensional altermagnetic topology for next-generation devices. Salim El Rouayheb's team at Rutgers University, with MIT, Drexel University, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the University of Maryland, College Park, will research stochastic ontology for machine learning combining information theory and rule-based reasoning in open sensor-model-user systems (SOLIR). Jacob Covey's team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with Cornell University, Stanford University, and the University of Rochester, will study entanglement engineering using quantum geometry under the topic "Entanglement Engineering Leveraging Holographic Duality." Kausik Sengupta's team at Princeton University, with the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of California, San Diego, will research optimal design and fundamental limits for self-accelerating beams, wavefront control, and information network communications under the topic "Curvilinear Electromagnetic Propagation." Francesco Monticone's team at Cornell University, with MIT, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Vanderbilt University, will investigate deep nanophotonic inference systems.

ONR: Generative AI Evaluation, Aerosols, Perovskites, Robot Skill Acquisition, and Hypersonic Materials

The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring topic 14 and topics 17 through 22. Osbert Bastani's team at the University of Pennsylvania, with Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, and the University of Texas at Austin, will research neuro-symbolic evaluation frameworks for evaluating and monitoring large generative artificial intelligence models (NEON). Steven Miller's team at Colorado State University, along with the University of Iowa, the University of North Dakota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will carry out the "Ribbons in the Sky" project on the impacts of aerosol injection, transformation, and deposition on 3D radiative balance to characterize the 4D life cycle of aerosols. Patrick Hopkins' team at the University of Virginia, with the University at Buffalo (SUNY), Vanderbilt University, Stanford University, the University of Maryland, College Park, and Pennsylvania State University, will study non-equilibrium and strongly coupled energy transformations at interfaces.

Barry Rand's team at Princeton University, alongside the University of Colorado Boulder, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and the University of Washington, will study reversible electrochemical strategies for halide perovskite semiconductor stability (RESHAPE). Laurent Itti's team at the University of Southern California (USC), with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Colorado State University, and Indiana University, will develop visual perception and attention models for outdoor augmented reality under the topic of visual perception and attention in mixed physical and virtual environments. Ye Zhao's team at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, will conduct research on understanding human skill acquisition strategies and transferring them to self-directed learning robots. Alexandre Martin's team at the University of Kentucky, with the University of Colorado Boulder, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will investigate ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) material and gas interactions in hypersonic flows through multiscale modeling and experiments.

Office of the Department of War CTO and Air Force Research Lab: "The Future Begins with Basic Research"

The Office of the Department of War Chief Technology Officer (@DoWCTO) announced on its official X account on October 29 that the Department of War announced $150 million in awards for defense-related research projects as part of MURI. The CTO office noted that the program contributes to current and future military capabilities for warfighters and has generated numerous civilian applications. In the post, the CTO office stated that the awards support teams at "50+ U.S. academic institutions," whereas the Department of War press release specified 57 institutions.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (@AFResearchLab) congratulated this year's Department of War MURI recipients on its official X account on October 30, stating, "The FUTURE begins with basic research."

Sources (KST)

• U.S. Department of War press release, "Department of War Announces $150 Million in Awards to Multidisciplinary University Research Teams" (2026-10-29): https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4636398/
• U.S. Department of War, "FY2026 MURI Selected Projects": https://media.defense.gov/2026/Oct/29/2004020995/-1/-1/1/FY26-MURI-AWARDS.PDF
• Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, "FY2026 MURI Notice of Funding Opportunity": https://arl.devcom.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/W911NF25S0004_FY26-MURI-FINAL.pdf
• Office of the Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of War, X: https://x.com/DoWCTO/status/2115824776681844755
• U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, X: https://x.com/AFResearchLab/status/2116238791769796900