MULTIDISCIPLINARY INITIATIVE
the DoD MURI program and RLE
2003 May Issue 3

The Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative, or MURI, is a multi-agency Department of Defense (DoD) program that supports research teams based in academic research organizations whose efforts intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline.

The MURI program was initiated around the time that RLE's historical core research funding program, the Joint Services Electronics Program (JSEP), was terminated in 1996. Annual MURI funding in RLE today is nearly three times the value of funding that JSEP had provided. While MURIs are more topically focused than was JSEP, and have shorter funding cycles, RLE’s intrinsic multidisciplinary nature has been remarkable fit to the objectives of the MURI program. The hallmarks of RLE research are its scholarly excellence and the wide-ranging curiosity needed to go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. These qualities have proven to be powerful inducements for DoD sponsorship.

The dollar volume of RLE research in 2003 from all sponsors is nearly 80% more than in 1996 despite the loss of JSEP. There are today substantially greater numbers of active RLE faculty researchers and students. An important part of this unprecedented growth can be attributed to RLE’s cohort of MURI projects.

The cover story for this issue presents the most recent of these projects. In a typical MURI nationally, the interdisciplinary requirements of the program demand teams assembled from two or more universities. In a startling demonstration of RLE’s ability to span multiple research areas, in Erich P. Ippen’s new program (see cover story) is not only based at MIT, it is centered entirely with one MIT laboratory: the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
No place at MIT enjoys a broader diversity of sponsors than does RLE. The MURI program is one of our many sponsors. In future issues we will present how this diversity ensures the continuing vitality of RLE’s research and educational missions.