Army Research Office

In case you were wondering, I did not drop off the face of the earth for the last four months… except that I had to refrain from blogging for a while…

Because I was working out the details with the project officers from the Army Research Office (ARO) about the award of the fiscal 2009 Defence University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) award! The DURIP awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher education with degree granting programs in science, math or engineering, to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. From what I am hearing, it’s not easy to get funded, at all. Since this is my first time applying for a military grant, I am really proud about receiving the award.

I needed to complete a Human Subject Protection Training… with the National Institute of Health (NIH), and making sure the various paperwork get to the relevant parties. All amidst an inland hurricane situation in Carbondale/Southern Illinois area! [news] [Yahoo Comments] And for a time, I thought I was not going to make the various deadlines!!

But after all these running around, the grant money was finally awarded. This is great news indeed because the funding will allow me to purchase the equipments I need for the new direction of research. (Sorry. Can’t talk about what I am buying yet, but you will hear about them in the months to come.) It was funny that the ARO chose to abbreviate my funding request to “Virtual Environment Equipment”! They are not wrong, but I am guessing that they are equally secretive about what they chose to fund – for my protection, I hope?

Now, let’s get to work!