ARO MURI

ARO MURI

Supports multidisciplinary university teams pursuing long-range defense research collaborations and shared outcomes.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Army Research Office portion of the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) is an annual program jointly sponsored by ARO, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). MURI funds university research consortia tackling complex, multidisciplinary problems of direct relevance to Army priorities. Awards run $1.25 million to $1.5 million per year over an initial three-year performance period, with an optional two-year extension — total award value ranges from approximately $3.75 million to $7.5 million over the full five-year period. The FY26 solicitation (W911NF25S0004) carried a white-paper deadline of May 2, 2025 at 5 PM ET and a full-proposal deadline of September 5, 2025 at 5 PM ET. The FY27 cycle is anticipated to follow the annual cadence and release in early 2026.

Only accredited U.S. institutions of higher education with degree-granting science or engineering programs are eligible. Multi-institution consortia are the program norm — the MURI structure is explicitly designed to unite researchers from multiple disciplines and institutions around a single Army-priority topic. DoD institutions of higher education such as the Naval Postgraduate School and Air Force Academy are also eligible. Annual topic areas are selected by ARO each cycle; the FY26 topic list was published with solicitation W911NF25S0004. Individual researchers cannot apply directly without an institutional affiliation.

Applications follow a two-stage process: white paper first, followed by a full proposal only upon invitation. ARO's TPOC for MURI is Sue Kase, PhD (usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.aro-muri@army.mil). The program has a total estimated scope of approximately $170 million over five years across all three services. Winning teams conduct sustained, high-impact basic research that directly informs new Army capabilities, and ARO has funded MURI awards contributing to advances in quantum information, autonomous systems, materials science, and network sciences.