Defense Security Cooperation University - Research Grants

The Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) offers research grants aimed at enhancing security cooperation through evidence-based studies. Researchers must submit a white paper, which will determine eligibility for full technical applications. Projects should align with the U.S. Department of Defense's Learning and Evaluation Agenda. The DSCU mission is to foster professionalism in security cooperation, focusing on lessons learned from these research endeavors. Grants are broadly open, with some restrictions based on individual DSCU component guidelines.

NOTE: WC and RALLI consider white papers on a rolling basis (until the above deadline), but applicants are required to submit a white paper according to a moving wall depending on the timing and level of expected funding:
Category A projects must be submitted nine months ahead of the expected award date.Category B projects must be submitted six months ahead of the expected award date.Category C projects must be submitted three months ahead of the expected award date
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s (DSCA) Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) promotes access to and production of knowledge on security cooperation, or “all DOD interactions with foreign security establishments that build and develop allied and partner security capabilities and capacity for self-defense and multinational operations, provide the Armed Forces of the United States with access to the foreign country during peacetime or a contingency operation, and build relationships that promote specific United States security interests” (Joint Publication 3-20, Security Cooperation, 1-2). Evidence-building activities that contribute to the body of knowledge on security cooperation—hereafter “SC research”—are the primary focus of this NFO.
Research projects responding to this NFO ideally result in lessons that can be applied to the practice of security cooperation. In response to this NFO, applicants may be asked for a mandatory white paper submission, emailed to dsca.dscu.grants@mail.mil. Use of the one-page white paper is intended to determine which efforts are of merit preparatory to submission of a full technical application as described in Section IV. Applicants will be selected from the one-page white paper submissions to be invited by the Government to submit a full technical application for evaluation and possible award consideration. One-page white papers that fail to address the areas listed in the Program Description of the NFO will not be evaluated and will not receive an invitation to submit a full technical application.
The DSCU mission is to improve the quality and professionalism of security cooperation through evidence-based research, analysis, and application of lessons learned. DSCU components sponsor and conclude research projects that align substantively with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Learning and Evaluation Agenda for Partnerships (LEAP) framework and the DSCU Research Agenda found here, in partnership with individual researchers, educational institutions, and policy-focused research organizations.
The DSCU research grant program, conducted pursuant to 10 USC § 4001, is generally open to a broad range of researchers, although individual DSCU components may have restrictions on who may receive grants.