Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI)

Full Announcement

The MURI program supports basic science and/or engineering research at U.S. institutions of higher education (hereafter referred to as "universities") that is of potential interest to DoD. The program is focused on multidisciplinary research efforts that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline to address scientific issues of interest to the DoD. As defined by the DoD, “basic research is systematic study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind. It includes all scientific study and experimentation directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in those fields of the physical, engineering, environmental, and life sciences related to long-term national security needs. It is farsighted high payoff research that provides the basis for technological progress.” (http://comptroller.defense.gov/fmr/02b/02b_05.pdf).

The DoD’s basic research program invests broadly in many specific fields to ensure that it has early cognizance of new scientific knowledge.

The FY 2011 MURI competition is for the topics listed below. Detailed descriptions of the topics can be found in Section VIII entitled, “Specific MURI Topics”, of the BAA. The detailed descriptions are intended to provide the proposer a frame of reference and are not meant to be restrictive to the possible approaches to achieving the goals of the topic and the program. Innovative ideas addressing these research topics are highly encouraged.

White papers and full proposals addressing the following topics (1) through (10) should be
submitted to The Office of Naval Research:

(1) Soil Blast Modeling and Simulation
(2) Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for Decentralized Autonomy
(3) III-Nitride Terahertz Electronics – Scaling Strategies beyond Silicon
(4) Charge Transport in DNA Molecular Wire
(5) Coupled Human-landscape Interactions in Low-lying Coastal Environments
(6) Integrated Oceanographic, Atmospheric, and Acoustic Physics
(7) Improved Meteorlogical Modeling in Mountainous Terrain
(8) Bacterial or Cellular Controllers for Device Autonomy
(9) Nanoscience – based High-speed Fabrication of Full Function Hybrid Flexible Electronic Systems
(10) Atomic-scale Interphases: Exploring New Material States

White papers and Full proposals addressing the following topics (11) through (17) should be submitted to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR):

(11) Nanofabrication of Tunable 3D Nanotube Architectures (2 proposals)
(12) Quantum Memories and Light-Matter Interfaces (2 proposals)
(13) Biomolecule-Directed Assembly of Nanostructures
(14) Nanostructural Control of Thermal and Electrical Transport Properties
(15) Investigation of 3-D Hybrid Integration of CMOS/Nanoelectronic Circuits
(16) Science of Cyber Security
(17) Large Scale Integrated Hybrid Nanophotonics

White papers and full proposals addressing the following topics (18) through (25) should be submitted to the Army Research Office (ARO):

(18) Controlling the Abiotic/Biotic Interface
(19) Quantum Stochastics and Control
(20) Qubit Enabled Imaging, Sensing & Metrology (QuISM)
(21) Flex-Activated Materials
(22) Game Theory for Adversarial Behavior
(23) Light filamentation
(24) Novel Free-Standing 2D Crystalline Materials (Oxides/Nitrides)
(25) Value of Information for Distributed Data Fusion

Proposals from a team of university investigators may be warranted because the necessary expertise in
addressing the multiple facets of the topics may reside in different universities, or in different departments in the same university. By supporting multidisciplinary teams, the program is complementary to other DoD basic research programs that support university research through single-investigator awards. Proposals shall name one Principal Investigator (PI) as the responsible technical point of contact. Similarly, one institution shall be the primary awardee for the purpose of award execution. The PI shall come from the primary institution. The relationship among participating institutions and their respective roles, as well as the apportionment of funds including sub-awards, if any, shall be described in both the proposal text and the budget.