DARPA gives more than $12M to fund scientific “rising stars”

DARPA reported today that it has selected this year’s class for its Young Faculty Award program, several of whom will concentrate of robotics-related research.

From a group of 226 applicants, 25 tenure-track researchers were chosen to receive up to $1 million each over three years. Recipients receive two years of funding at $250,000 each year, with up to four “Director’s Fellowship” winners getting a third year and $500,000 in additional funding.

A complete list of recipients is available here.

The goal of the program is to develop a new generation of scientists and engineers who can tackle defense and security issues. Each recipient is assigned a DARPA program manager to act as a mentor and provide insight into DARPA and the Department of Defense.

“DARPA has selected some of the most promising young researchers in the country to participate in the next YFA class,” DARPA program manager Alicia Jackson said in a statement. “We expect the 2013 recipients to hit the ground running on research that matters to DARPA. But, we’re also going to provide a lot of support to help them understand DARPA, our mission, and the DoD science and technology community. YFA recipients will have the chance to go on military site visits to meet some of the potential users of their technology. There will be opportunities for networking with their peers, DARPA staff, and other DARPA performers. A YFA recipient who makes the most out of the program will have a solid foundation for a successful career interacting with DARPA and the DoD to solve national security problems.”

The program was started in 2006 and has awarded more than 200 grants since that time. DARPA says information about applying to the 2014 program will be posted to fbo.gov and grants.gov in the fall.

[ photo courtesy of DARPA ]