ARO DURIP (Annual Cycle)
Supports United States universities acquiring research equipment for defense-relevant scientific research.
The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) is a tri-service program sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and jointly executed by ARO, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). DURIP provides one-year grants from $50,000 to $3,000,000 to accredited U.S. universities for the acquisition of research equipment and scientific instrumentation used to conduct defense-relevant research and educate scientists and engineers. The FY26 Army DURIP was listed on Grants.gov as opportunity number 350954, with approximately $34 million available DoD-wide and approximately 95 awards anticipated across all three services.
Only accredited U.S. institutions of higher education are eligible — for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible. Awards fund equipment acquisition only; research salaries, indirect costs, and operating expenses are not covered. The scientific scope is broad: any area important to national defense qualifies, spanning physics, chemistry, materials science, quantum science, biomedical research, electrical engineering, and more. The program is designated as 6.1 Basic Research. DURIP follows an annual solicitation cycle tied to the fiscal year.
ARO's contact for both DURIP and MURI is Sue Kase, PhD (usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.durip@army.mil). Institutions seeking instrumentation to support ongoing or proposed research in areas aligned with one of ARO's 10 Essential Research Programs — such as QIS-PNT, SAMM, FREEDOM, or VICTOR — should frame their proposal around how the equipment enables defense-priority research objectives. Reviewers evaluate the scientific merit of the proposed research and the degree to which the requested equipment is essential, cannot be obtained through other means, and will benefit multiple researchers.
Acquisition of research equipment or instrumentation for research areas important to national defense. No topic restrictions beyond national defense relevance.
Sign up free to see the funding breakdown
Sign up free to see the industries in scope
Sign up free to see the full eligibility
Sign up free to see how to apply
Sign up free to see the timeline