US Army funds more than 140 inventions

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — More than 140 inventions that could provide significant advances toward modernization received Army funding last year.

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory and its Army Research Office, invest in basic science research at nonprofits and universities to develop innovative advances for the future Soldier. During fiscal 2019 those research grants and contracts resulted in 141 inventions at institutions throughout the country.

“We cultivate entrepreneurs and facilitate scientific breakthroughs that will provide commanders with opportunities to build game-changing future technology programs,” said Dr. Barton H. Halpern, ARO director. “These inventions demonstrate that. We’re excited to see the impact they will have for the Army of the future.”

Some of the university inventions funded through ARO and ARL include:

• A miniature remotely accessible self-driving car robot at Arizona State University-Tempe

• A method to construct, analyze and detect analog trojans at the University of Florida

• High-performance ladder polymers for membrane gas separation at Stanford University

• Photonic quantum computing using entangled squeezed state clusters at the University of Arizona

• Methods for stable, long-term culture of engineered human pancreatic tissue in vitro for disease modeling, therapeutic drug discovering/screening and disuse engineering at Harvard University

• Variable Zoom X-Ray Computed Tomography at University of Texas Arlington

ARO serves as the Army’s principal agent for the planning, organization, selection and management of extramural basic research.

“Our program managers identify emerging scientific opportunities and fund basic science research to create innovative advances across the sciences related to long-term Army Priorities,” Halpern said. “The resulting discoveries, provide the Army with innovations for the future operating environment.”

The Bayh-Dole act permits businesses, nonprofits and universities to retain ownership of subject inventions made under federally funded research grants and contracts, while also giving the government the license to practice the subject invention.

The Army funds research at more than 250 universities across the country and around the world and focuses on increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in the engineering, physical, life, mathematical, computer, information and social sciences, to enable crucial future Army technologies and capabilities.

ARO has a research portfolio that exceeds $450 million, including more than 1,000 single investigator research projects, more than 40 multidisciplinary research centers and three University Affiliated Research Centers.

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CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army’s corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation’s wars and come home safely.