Inaugural $10 million Department of War grant will enhance defense research capacity at N.C. A&T

Funding will be spent on research project into AI, cyber resilience and quantum systems linked to national security

Inaugural DoW grant will fund cutting-edge research in STEM fields aligned with national security

The U.S. Department of War has named North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University an inaugural recipient of a five-year, $10 million grant to establish Accelerate-DAQ, a project focused on expanding the institutions defence research capacity in artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber resilience and quantum systems.

The project is funded through the Department of War Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) Program within the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, which established the pilot program to increase research capacity at HBCUs and other MIs.

The DoW established the program to provide support for cutting-edge research and training at HBCUs and MIs in many STEM fields aligned with national security.

The scale of investment will serve to accelerate progress of the research enterprise itself while supporting specific research projects. For A&T, that includes reaching and sustaining Research 1 status in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

A validation of A&T research

Chancellor James R. Martin II said: “We’re honored to have been chosen for the Accelerate-DAQ program. Our selection is strong validation of the research A&T is already focused on and our capacity to do much more in the future.

“Some of the most important research of the past 50 years has been funded by DoW/Department of Defense funding, including major advances in drug development, materials science, human augmentation technology and more. Accelerate-DAQ will enable A&T to make larger contributions toward advancing science and solving new and emerging scientific challenges.”

Accelerate-DAQ will focus on several of the six DoW’s Critical Technology Areas (CTAs), with a particular emphasis on Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI) and Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, with three interconnected research clusters: Trustworthy AI & Cyber Defense, AI-enabled Autonomy, and Quantum Computing.

“Future AI systems must do more than produce accurate answers. They must be trustworthy, resilient and capable of operating under uncertainty,” said Kaushik Roy, Ph.D., one of the project’s faculty leads and Computer Science department chair in A&T’s College of Engineering.

“Our research explores how intelligent systems can collaborate effectively with people, resist cyber threats and continue making reliable decisions in challenging environments. These advances have the potential to reshape how humans and AI work together in applications that demand both performance and trust.”

Enhanced research culture

The Accelerate-DAQ project also seeks to enhance the research culture across campus, and will empower ‘research champions’ within the faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and research staff. It will also increase A&T capacity to do research in sensitive or classified areas.

“This project is a gamechanger in developing and providing support for our research champions at every level in multiple disciplines, while strengthening A&T’s ability to meet national security demands,” said Lisa Clough, Ph.D., vice chancellor for Research at A&T and Accelerate-DAQ lead principal investigator.

“We must continue investing in emerging STEM scholars, helping them thrive as scientists and embrace excellence in research.”