Department of Defense (U.S.)

Investment

The DoD has a long history of supporting nanoscience research, including early advances in surface science through materials engineering, physics, and chemistry dating back to the late 1960s and fundamental research enabling instrumentation to visualize structures at the nanoscale in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the DoD formally initiated programs of research to investigate materials and phenomenon at the submicron, that is, the nanoscale, such as the “Ultra-Submicron Electronics Research” program to explore nanoelectronics, In the mid-1990s, the first nanostructured ceramic coating to inhibit saltwater corrosion on ships was developed through the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Nanoscience and nanotechnology are not new areas of research interest for the defense research community.

Across the DoD investments in nanotechnology are distributed across basic research (called 6.1 in terms of budgetary processes), applied research (6.2), and advanced technology development (6.3) and across programs managed by the Army through the Army Research Office (ARO), the Navy through ONR, the Air Force though the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Directorate for Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP). Approximately half of the funding for nanoscience within DoD is directed toward basic research projects that aim to develop understanding and control of matter at the nanoscale. Roughly 35 percent of the DoD nanoscience investment is in applied research and 15 percent in advanced technology development (63 percent). The DoD funds both intramural (i.e., DoD laboratories) and extramural projects. Extramural projects include both traditional federal support to universities as well as major defense contractors and small businesses. In addition to core programs of the services, between $12 and $15 million in funding is specifically directed toward small businesses through DoD Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, as Congressionally mandated.

The DoD, primarily through the services, has made long-term investments (typically renewable five-year) in interdisciplinary research centers aimed at developing nanotechnology to dramatically improve the capabilities and survivability of deployed service members. For example, the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was founded in 2002 with an initial $50 million contract through the ARO and was renewed in 2007. Nanotechnology research at the ISN has been seen as a leading innovator to enable transformational concepts [Page 151][Page 152]as part of the Army's Future Force Warrior (FFW) Program and large Future Combat Systems (FCS) Program. As part of the FFW program, one goal has been an integrated individual combat system, that is, a lightweight, comfortable, self-powering suit with high-tech ballistic and chemical-biological weapons protection, communications, and sensing capabilities. Another interdisciplinary center, the Center for Nanoscience Innovation for Defense (CNID), was jointly funded by DARPA and the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) within OSD. The CNID brings together researchers from three University of California institutions: Santa Barbara (UCSB), Los Angeles (UCLA), and Riverside (UCR), to focus on transitioning cutting-edge nanoscience innovations to defense-related capabilities.

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