US Army Research Office

Funds Army Research Office, the Army gateway for university collaboration in foundational scientific and engineering work.

The Army Research Office (ARO) is the U.S. Army's extramural basic research arm — often called 'The Army's Front Door to Universities.' Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, ARO funds fundamental scientific research across physical sciences, engineering sciences, and information sciences at universities, nonprofits, and other research organizations worldwide. Its mission is to lead and shape scientific discovery to create future transformational Army capabilities.

ARO operates under DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL), which sits within Army Futures Command. Its research portfolio exceeds $450M and supports more than 7,000 researchers at 300+ institutions across 46 US states and territories and 30 countries. ARO-funded research has contributed to 27 Nobel Prizes. The primary funding mechanism is the consolidated ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA W911NF-23-S-0001), which accepts rolling white-paper submissions in all three divisions.

ARO is the Army analogue to AFOSR (Air Force) and ONR (Navy) for basic research, and co-administers tri-service programs including MURI, DURIP, and DEPSCoR with those agencies.