Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI)
The Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI) is a pilot program that supports use-inspired basic research performed by university-industry teams. DESI is sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OASD/R&E), and is run in collaboration with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the Army Research Office (ARO).
DESI incentivizes use-inspired basic research projects, defined as a scientific study or experiment directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications. Projects funded in the program bring together industry and university teams with the aim of discovering completely new solutions to challenging defense and national security problems, and using that knowledge to influence existing or new acquisition programs. DESI-funded projects also aim to accelerate the impact of basic research results on defense capabilities.
Industry's initial role in a DESI project is to provide a national security context for the defense challenge, and to collaborate with the university research team throughout the project. The university's role is to invent or discover knowledge that could be leveraged for completely new solutions to the defense challenge. As a follow-on to research conducted with DESI funding, the industry partner is expected to further develop the project's results into new capabilities that may be offered to DoD for future acquisition considerations.
Calvin Scott, Contracting Officer, Phone 7036967308, Email calvin.scott@us.af.mil
