|
|
|
Greetings,
We are excited to share this funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of War (DoW). The DoW's Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) provides funding to U.S. institutions of higher education for the acquisition of research equipment or instrumentation to enable research and the education of scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Prospective applicants are asked to contact the following individuals, by October 13, 2026 if possible, to discuss their request: Sarah Elwell, FAS Science Associate Dean for Research or David Hwang, SEAS Dean for Research. More information about the award can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.
- OSP Deadline: October 30, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
- Sponsor Deadline: November 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET
- Award Amount: Typical funding per grant is $50,000 to $3,000,000 for 12 months. Proposals to purchase major equipment or instrumentation costing more than $3,000,000 must meet one of the following two conditions:
- The proposal contains a firm commitment from the applicant institution to provide voluntary committed cost sharing or matching so the cost to DoW remains $3,000,000 or less; or,
- The proposal requests that the agency receiving the proposal grant an exception to the $3,000,000 maximum. At the administering agency’s discretion, the proposal may be considered if it is warranted by priority defense research need(s). Exceptions to the $3,000,000 limit are expected to be rare. Note: AFOSR will not consider any requests for exception above $7,000,000.
Program Overview
The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) is designed to improve the capabilities of accredited U.S. institutions of higher education to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense, by providing funds for the acquisition of research equipment or instrumentation that cannot typically be purchased within the budget of a single-investigator award. DURIP is one element of the University Research Initiatives (URI), sponsored by DoW research offices including: the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Please note, AFOSR, ARO, and ONR each have their own funding opportunity number for DURIP and the link above provides access to all three (though the Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO, is the same for all). The agencies' individual funding opportunity numbers are:
The total amount of funding for this DURIP NOFO is estimated to be $28 million, pending appropriations.
Priority Areas
Eligibility Criteria
- Principal Investigators (PIs) may submit a single DURIP proposal to more than one administering agency; however, only one administering agency will fund it, if selected.
- There is no limit on the total number of different proposals a PI can submit.
- DURIP proposals do not include Co-PIs or subawards.
- Proposals may request funding for more than one item if the requested items comprise a “system” that is used for a common research purpose.
- Requests for computing equipment for DoW-relevant research programs are appropriate and eligible for funding.
- Proposals for purely instructional equipment or general purpose computing facilities are not eligible for DURIP funding.
- Allowable costs include:
- Acquisition of major equipment or instrumentation, including reasonable costs for design, construction, assembly, and/or installation by external contractors or university technicians or engineers.
- Computers for DoW-relevant research programs.
- Travel costs for testing and/or acceptance of proposed instrumentation, and associated indirect (F&A) costs.
Selection Criteria
- Applications should show strength in as many of the following evaluation areas as practicable to demonstrate maximum competitiveness:
- The impact of the proposed equipment or instrumentation on research DoW funds, or plans to fund, and/or the likelihood the proposed equipment or instrumentation will enhance current research capabilities or establish new research capabilities relevant to DoW areas of interest.
- The importance and priority to DoW missions of research the proposed equipment or instrumentation will support.
- The potential the proposed equipment or instrumentation offers to enhance the applicant institution’s ability to educate future scientists and engineers through research conducted with the proposed equipment in disciplines important to DoW missions.
- The DoW expects the highest standards of scientific rigor, integrity, and adherence to appropriate tenets of Gold Standard Science.
Additional Information and Resources
Prospective applicants are asked to please contact the following individuals, by October 13, 2026 if possible, to discuss their request: Sarah Elwell, FAS Science Associate Dean for Research or David Hwang, SEAS Dean for Research.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to communicate with the technical program officer(s) at the relevant administering agency to explore research areas of mutual interest. Contact information for program officers can be found in each agency's descriptions of its priority areas. All pre-proposal inquiries and questions must be submitted no later than October 16, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET.
Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to FAS Research Development. |
|
|---|
|
MAILING LISTS
Sign up to join the mailing list for FAS Funding Focus, a resource series tailored to help FAS faculty and staff navigate the ever-evolving landscape of grants and funding. Previous editions of FAS Funding Focus (FFF) are accessible in the FFF archive. To receive additional announcements from FORA, including the monthly On Your RADAR (Research Administration Developments & Announcements Rundown) newsletter and invitations to the FORA Forum, a monthly meeting for Harvard research administrators, please sign up for the FORA listserv here.
RESOURCES
Research Development maintains a Sample Proposal Library of successful proposals from recent award recipients that are available to FAS and SEAS faculty by request; please email Research Development to request to view a proposal. For more information on Research Development's resources—including lists of internal funding programs, early career funding programs, and sabbatical fellowships—please visit the Funding Opportunities web page.
SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT
All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found on the Funding Databases web page.
PIVOT CURATED SEARCHES
Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be further refined in Pivot based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide.
Additional curated lists are available on the Funding Databases web page. We continue to add to and refine these lists based on feedback. Please feel free to reach out to us at research_development@fas.harvard.edu with any suggestions you may have. |
|
|---|
|
|
Your Research, Our Mission |
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|  |
|
|
|
|
