Defence Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Grants

The Long Range BAA is ONR's omnibus front door and the single most useful entry point for researchers who want Navy funding but are not responding to a named topic. It solicits Long-Range Science and Technology projects aimed at enhancing Navy and Marine Corps operations across science and engineering disciplines, and it is jointly issued with ONR Global and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory - which matters because ONRG opens the door to non-U.S. performers and MCWL brings a distinct expeditionary problem set. For AI proposers the alignment is strong: ONR's 2026 Science and Technology Strategy names AI and autonomy as the organisation's top research focus, spanning machine learning, adversarial AI, intelligent agents, autonomous systems, and modelling and simulation. The strategy is built around a FEED at Speed framework and ties every research programme to a transition path, so proposals that articulate how a capability reaches the fleet are advantaged over those that stop at publication. ONR has additionally launched a strategic initiative to use AI to conduct basic and applied research rather than only to research AI for naval use cases, which opens space for AI-for-science proposals inside a defence portfolio. Eligibility is deliberately wide - all responsible sources from academia, industry and the research community worldwide may submit, and both small and large businesses compete, with the applicable SBA size standard at 1,000 employees. ONR does not publish per-award amounts. Submissions go through the ONR Submission Portal; FedConnect is no longer accepted as of Amendment 0004. The response deadline has been extended to 30 September 2026; the primary contact is Matthew Murray.

The LUCAS Component Challenge funds components for the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System family - the U.S. military's push toward cheap, mass-producible attritable air platforms - and it is one of the more accessible defence autonomy opportunities currently open because it is deliberately structured for companies with no prior DoD experience. The Government is seeking prototypes and concepts that reduce cost, increase performance, improve manufacturability and strengthen mission adaptability, targeting aircraft already fielded, upcoming variants, and platform-agnostic interfaces for future LUCAS systems. Two of the focus areas are squarely AI. The Artificial Intelligence category covers machine learning, perception, autonomy and decision aids that improve mission planning, predictive maintenance and autonomous performance while reducing operator workload. The Swarm and Collaborative Autonomy category covers distributed sensing, mesh networking, cooperative tasking and multi-vehicle behaviours. A separate Mission Command Planner and Executor area seeks tools translating commander intent into executable tasking with rapid re-tasking and secure mission execution. Awards typically run 500,000 to 5,000,000 dollars under an Other Transaction Authority, and the solicitation operates on a rolling basis - open for 120 days from posting, with weekly reviews and down-selects anticipated within thirty to forty-five days of submission. That cadence rewards submitting early rather than polishing to a deadline.