(a)The Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, shall carry out a Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) as part of the university research programs of the Department of Defense.
(b)The objectives of the program are as follows:
(1)To increase the number of university researchers in eligible States capable of performing science and engineering research responsive to the needs of the Department of Defense.
(2)To enhance the capabilities of institutions of higher education in eligible States to develop, plan, and execute science and engineering research that is relevant to the mission of the Department of Defense and competitive under the peer-review systems used for awarding Federal research assistance.
(3)To increase the probability of long-term growth in the competitively awarded financial assistance that institutions of higher education in eligible States receive from the Federal Government for science and engineering research.
(c)In order to achieve the program objectives, the following activities are authorized under the program:
(1)Competitive award of grants for research and instrumentation to support such research.
(2)Competitive award of financial assistance for graduate students.
(3)To provide assistance to science and engineering researchers at institutions of higher education in eligible States through collaboration between Department of Defense laboratories and such researchers.
(4)Any other activities that are determined necessary to further the achievement of the objectives of the program.
(d)(1)The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering shall designate which States are eligible States for the purposes of this section.
(2)The Under Secretary shall designate a State as an eligible State if, as determined by the Under Secretary—
(A)the average annual amount of all Department of Defense obligations for science and engineering research and development that were in effect with institutions of higher education in the State for the three fiscal years preceding the fiscal year for which the designation is effective or for the last three fiscal years for which statistics are available is less than the amount determined by multiplying 60 percent times the amount equal to 1/50 of the total average annual amount of all Department of Defense obligations for science and engineering research and development that were in effect with institutions of higher education in the United States for such three preceding or last fiscal years, as the case may be; and
(B)the State has demonstrated a commitment to developing research bases in the State and to improving science and engineering research and education programs in areas relevant to the mission of the Department of Defense at institutions of higher education in the State.
(3)The Under Secretary shall not remove a designation of a State under paragraph (2) because the State exceeds the funding levels specified under subparagraph (A) of such paragraph unless the State has exceeded such funding levels for at least two consecutive years.
(e)(1)The Secretary may consult with the Director of the National Science Foundation and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the planning, development, and execution of the program and may coordinate the program with the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research conducted by the National Science Foundation and with similar programs sponsored by other departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
(2)All solicitations under the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research may be made to, and all awards may be made through, the State committees established for purposes of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research conducted by the National Science Foundation.
(3)A State committee referred to in paragraph (2) shall ensure that activities carried out in the State of that committee under the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research are relevant to the mission of the Department of Defense and coordinated with the activities carried out in the State under other similar initiatives of the Federal Government to stimulate competitive research.
(f)In this section, the term “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
