WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $19.4 million in grants to 67 universities for basic multi-disciplinary research with possible military applications.
Grants for the research, under its Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative, will total $207 million over the next five years, the DOD said in a news release Wednesday.
Among the projects are studies into urban sensor networks for data fusion; human-robot interaction in littoral and urban military domains; underwater acoustic communications; and "exploiting the documented plasticity of the adult brain to create superior warfighters in fast-paced, close quarters combat."
The awards for fiscal 2007 were the result of competitive proposals and compliments other basic DOD-sponsored, single-investigator research.
Among the 67 institutions sharing in the 36 awards are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, Arizona State University, Stanford University; and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
