The ARO has supported programs for the HBCUs and MIs since 1980. In addition, the ARO manages the DoD Infrastructure Support Program for these institutions. This special program has awarded over $97 million to them since it began in 1992, including over $38 million in grants to HBCUs and MIs to support collaborative research, instrumentation for research and education, COEs, and education centers for science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM). The HBCUs and MI COEs, supported by DoD funds under ARO grants, are conducting long–term research programs in Advanced Distributed Simulation and Intelligent Resin Transfer Molding for Integral Armor Applications (see Table V–3).

In addition to the DoD–funded centers, two other HBCUs or MIs are supported by ARO funds. These include a research consortium for Fuel Cell Battery Research, led by the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Center for SEM Education at Contra Costa College.

Single investigator research programs make up a significant part of the ARO HBCU and MI program. Approximately $1 million is set aside for HBCUs and MIs in FY98 for research in several areas of interest to ARO. These areas include wireless communications, nonlinear optics, modeling and analysis of superplastic and electromagnetic materials, free electron lasers, and wide–bandgap semiconductors.

See Chapter VII–C.2 for additional information on support of HBCUs and MIs.

A major contributor to the Army science base is the single investigator working at a university and, to a lesser extent, in industry. These Army–sponsored researchers act as windows into the academic world for exploration of scientific discoveries. Individual investigators provide the Army with the ability to broadly impact the total science base, quickly exploiting opportunities that might arise. The research areas are relevant to Army needs and subject to scientific peer review. History has shown that the single investigator program has contributed significantly to the Army science base, with eight Nobel prizes awarded for Army–sponsored research. The areas of research pursued by the single investigator are discussed in the Surveys of Scientific Research (Section C) of this chapter.

The AMC has a key research initiative to support the Army’s thrust to digitize the battlefield. The objective of the Army digitization effort is to ensure the superiority of command and control (C²) systems by providing warfighters with a horizontally and vertically integrated digital information network. This network will provide a simultaneous, consistent picture of the battlefield from soldier to commander at each echelon, as well as across all the services and allied forces. ARL has prime responsibility for the AMC’s intramural research program and this program has been enhanced by the development of a federated laboratory concept.

The federated laboratory construct for conducting research is an innovative approach to integrating external research relevant to battlefield information systems—where the private sector has a substantial technology capability—with internal ARL research through the establishment of consortia in critical technology areas. Rather than developing or maintaining in–house research capabilities across the entire technological spectrum, this approach leverages external expertise, facilities, and technologies in areas where the private sector has both the lead and the incentive to invest, such as in telecommunications technologies. To date, the Army is benefiting from $12.2 million in consortium investments, including $5.6 million to customize laboratories to support research defined in the Annual Program Plan and $5.9 million in independent research and development (IR&D) programs that have been redirected to support the research objectives of the federated laboratory. The intent of the federated laboratory is to form distributed public and private–sector teams that together conduct research, develop new technologies, and employ existing state–of–the–art concepts and infrastructure available in industry, academia, and the Army. This approach has produced an effective synergy between government, industry, and academia that will provide the maximum return on Army resources by:

In January 1996, the Army awarded three federated laboratory cooperative research agreements:

The selection of research areas was based on the needs of the Army’s Digitization Initiative and the priority of the research programs to meet critical technology gaps in the Force XXI and AAN visions. The consortia participants are listed in Table V–5. During the second year, the federated laboratory has attracted associate members and established no–cost collaborations with key sources of technology:

In–house laboratory independent research (ILIR) is a traditional part of the Army’s basic research program. ILIR allocates 6.1 discretionary funds to the directors of selected Army research organizations to fund in–house research projects of exceptional scientific quality that have high risk but also very high potential payoff to the Army’s science and technology programs. ILIR funds are distributed to Army RDECs, the Corps of Engineers, the Medical Research and Materiel Command laboratories, and ARI. ILIR is reviewed yearly by the Office of the Assistant

Secretary of the Army (Research, Development and Acquisition) (OASA(RDA)), using metrics developed to assess programmatic effectiveness. The yearly review examines the quality, relevance, productivity, and resources of the ILIR work performed by each organization and determines its ratio of ILIR funding for the next fiscal year. This review results in only the best performers being rewarded. Within each organization, innovative research proposals submitted by scientists and engineers compete for ILIR funding through internal management and technical reviews of the proposals.

Successful ILIR projects, on completion, will typically define a start–up project for 6.1 or 6.2 mission funding within the organization. In addition to providing a pathway for the development of novel and high quality research projects by providing support for the most innovative and often speculative ideas, this program is instrumental in enhancing the recruitment and retention of outstanding scientists and engineers. The creative atmosphere fostered in this manner is essential to the identification of emerging operational concepts and technology thrusts for the future.

The Army After Next project conducts broad studies of warfare to frame issues vital to the development of the U.S. Army to about the year 2025, and provides these issues to the senior Army leadership in a format suitable for integration into Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) combat development programs. The AAN project conducts its studies through an annual cycle of wargames and workshops that culminates in an annual report to the Army Chief of Staff. Studies are currently pursued in four areas focused out to 2025: geopolitics, military art, human and organizational behavior, and technology. Those studies focused on technology are of prime importance to the Army’s research effort.

The first year of study by the AAN project resulted in recommendations for investments in basic research that were assessed to have the greatest potential in producing key enabling technologies for the U.S. Army in the 2010–2025 timeframe. OASA (RDA) has taken these recommendations and developed an approach to focus basic research investments based on defense SROs by:

Note: Army efforts toward defense SROs are discussed in Section B.8 of this chapter.

Defense SROs support emerging AAN technology needs as follows:

The Army leadership is discussing the possibility of identifying specific Army SROs in addition to defense SROs, that support the AAN. For FY98 the basic research budget dedicated to SRO topics is expected to increase from the current 15 percent to approximately 30 percent. Leading candidates for possible Army SROs emerging from AAN studies are:

The AAN project also recognizes that basic research may provide unexpected and revolutionary technologies that can further enhance the capabilities of future Army forces or, in extreme cases, fundamentally impact the system, design, and operational concepts upon which these forces will be based. While seeking major breakthroughs in technology, the synergy among currently developing research and technologies must be exploited to achieve revolutionary effects for the AAN forces. Some technology areas that have been identified as potentially enabling for the AAN force are:

The AAN has identified systems to provide perspective to the basic research community in imagining where basic–research–derived technologies may be applied in 2010–2025. They include:

The Army will leverage and support to the maximum requirements from the other services, academia, and commercial industry that support AAN capabilities. The Army will direct its basic research dollars toward those Army–unique technologies that are critical to AAN force capabilities. Examples of other service activities that have great potential for leveraging are: