Defense Innovation Fund
Started in 2016, the Defense Innovation Fund (DIF) supports early-stage research and development projects at NPS that focus on improving national security, increasing warfighting capabilities, and addressing military inefficiencies.
DIF moves projects from concept to completion by providing the initial capital necessary to develop these research projects to the point where federal spending becomes available to fully implement the initiatives. Several projects have already reached this goal and are making immediate improvements in the Department of Defense. Without the support of donors through the Defense Innovation Fund, these projects may never have been developed.
If you want to make a tangible difference in our nation’s security, this is the way to do it. By helping to fund early-stage projects, ideas from some of our nation’s brightest military members are transformed into national improvements in the Department of Defense.
In February 2022, the NPS Foundation invested $625,000 in defense research projects and NPS facility enhancement to support national security, including: $200,000 to support upgrading the current Mach 4 wind tunnel in the NPS Gas Dynamics Laboratory to allow for testing at true hypersonic speeds of Mach 5+ and $175,000 to support research for inverting the command and control (C2) pyramid for large-scale unmanned aerial system (UAS) experimentation and education among other projects. Five of the projects that received funding began as Seed projects in July 2021, receiving $10,000 each for initial research development.