PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Creates a Defense Innovation Unit inside the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense picks a Director with strong experience in innovation and commercial technology. The Director leads the Unit, reports straight to the Secretary, and can speak to the Secretary about Unit matters without needing approval from other DoD officials. The Unit looks for commercial technologies that could help the military, helps speed their use, and runs programs to strengthen the national security innovation base. It acts as the main link between the Department and entrepreneurs, startups, tech companies, and investors. The Unit coordinates with other DoD parts, the Joint Staff, and combatant commanders to find real military problems that commercial or nontraditional solutions can solve. Using its funds, the Unit can choose, fund, and oversee projects done by service-level innovation organizations. It also works with nontraditional defense contractors, investors, other federal agencies, industry, and schools to build U.S. and ally capacity around commercial and dual-use technologies. The Secretary can assign other tasks as needed. The Director must identify and support multi-stakeholder research and innovation partnerships that aim to make and commercialize technologies for defense. Support can include money, joining the partnership, technical advice, finding partners, sharing desired solutions, and other help. The Director should tell potential partners about government-developed intellectual property that can be licensed when appropriate and must send an annual report on these partnerships to the Secretary and the congressional defense committees. The Director may open regional outreach offices inside or outside the U.S. and, if so, must make and publish a plan, selection criteria, and rules on a public DoD website. Definitions: multi-stakeholder partnership (teams of universities, nonprofits, companies, or federal agencies); nontraditional capability (a solution that uses commercial innovation or outside capital with little reliance on current fielded systems); nontraditional defense contractor (as defined in law).

Title 10, §4127

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment.—

There is established in the Department of Defense a Defense Innovation Unit (referred to in this section as the “Unit”).

(b)Director and Deputy Director.— (c) Authority of Director.— (d) Responsibilities.—

There is a Director of the Unit who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Defense from among persons with substantial experience in innovation and commercial technology, as determined by the Secretary.

(e)Support for Multi-stakeholder Partnerships.—

(1)The Director shall identify and support multi-stakeholder research and innovation partnerships that—

(A)have the potential to generate technologies, processes, products, or other solutions that address national defense or security needs; and

(B)have as an objective the technology transfer or commercialization of the work product generated by the partnership, which may include work product that incorporates Government-developed intellectual property licensed to the partnership in accordance with paragraph (3).

(2)Support provided by the Director to a multi-stakeholder research and innovation partnership under this subsection may include—

(A)providing funding or other resources to the partnership;

(B)participating in the partnership;

(C)providing technical and technological advice and guidance to the partnership;

(D)suggesting and introducing other participants for inclusion in the partnership;

(E)providing the partnership with insight into desired solutions for defense and security needs; and

(F)such other forms of support as the Director determines appropriate.

(3)To the extent the Director determines appropriate, the Director shall seek to actively inform potential participants in multi-stakeholder research and innovation partnerships of the availability of Government-developed intellectual property that may be licensed to the partnership.

(4)On an annual basis, the Director shall submit to the Secretary of Defense and the congressional defense committees a report on the activities, advances, outcomes, and work product of the multi-stakeholder research and innovation partnerships supported under this subsection.

(f)Regional Outreach Centers.—

(1)In general.—

The Director may establish and maintain regional offices of the Unit at locations within and outside the United States for purposes of conducting outreach to and streamlining interactions between the Unit and the private sector, academia, and other mission partners.

(2)Selection criteria and other guidance.—

In the event the Director exercises the authority to establish and maintain regional offices under paragraph (1), the Director shall—

(A)develop a strategy and criteria for the selection of locations for such offices;

(B)issue any rules, regulations, policies, or guidance necessary for the operation of such offices; and

(C)make the information described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) available on a publicly accessible website of the Department of Defense.

(g)Definitions.—

In this section: (1)

(2)The term “nontraditional capability” means a solution to an operational challenge that can significantly leverage commercial innovation or external capital with minimal dependencies on fielded systems.

(3)The term “nontraditional defense contractor” has the meaning given that term in section 3014 of this title.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2025—Subsec. (d)(9). Pub. L. 119–60, § 1701(a)(26), substituted “pursuing” for “pursing”. Subsecs. (f), (g). Pub. L. 119–60, § 913, added subsec. (f) and redesignated former subsec. (f) as (g). 2024—Pub. L. 118–159 substituted “Defense Innovation Unit” for “Defense innovation unit” in section catchline.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Implementation Section effective 180 days after Dec. 22, 2023, with additional implementation requirements, see section 913(b)(1), (2) of Pub. L. 118–31, set out as notes under section 1766 of this title.

§4127 Defense Innovation Unit