Conduct and purchase defense-relevant research and development
Conduct basic, applied and advanced research and development internally, through military departments, by contract, or by agreement with another federal agency.
Contracts & purchases
ACQ-10 / Research, innovation and experimentation
Fund multistakeholder innovation partnerships and allocate DIU project funding
DIU can support joint research/innovation partnerships with funding, resources, participation and technical advice, and allocate its available funds to selected Service innovation projects.
At a glance
Mission goalDevelop a technology
Possible toolACQ-10 · Cooperation & exchanges
Legal basis10 U.S.C. §4127(d)-(f)
Responsible rolesPlanning · funds · approval · execution
Authority holder: Director, Defense Innovation Unit
Cooperation & exchanges
Mechanism tags describe the source text; they do not expand the authority.
Availability and verification
Express statutory pathway; award-specific appropriations, available balances, delegations, implementation and approvals not independently verified.
Requirements and limits
Eligibility & prerequisites
- Partnership addresses defense/security needs and has technology-transfer or commercialization objective.
- Use lawful underlying instrument for the particular support.
Limits & exclusions
- Liaison to investors or support for commercialization is not itself blanket stock-purchase or lending authority.
- Service project allocation does not certify recipient office’s contracting delegation.
Funding conditions
- DIU funding available for the project; underlying instrument controls payments and accountability.
Who contributes what
Need & planning
- DIU with Joint Staff, COCOMs and mission customers
Office profile
Office profile
Resources
- DIU funds made available to it
Approval
- DIU Director; instrument-specific awarding approver
Execution
- DIU and selected Service innovation organization
Partners & review
- Universities, nonprofits, commercial firms, government partners and investors
Office links are editorial matches to the original role text, not verified delegations. Composite labels and unmatched actors are preserved.
Coordination pathway
COCOM/Service demand → DIU commercial team → partnership and performer selection → instrument/funding/legal review → Service execution and DIU monitoring.
Legal basis
- 10 U.S.C. §4127(d)-(f)Primary statutory text; primary GovInfo baseline and amendment audit identified in research narrative.
What this research establishes
Legal basisSources linkedLegal sources and instrument limits are recorded.
RequirementsGates recordedRead the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action.
Public fundingRules recordedThe record states funding rules and conditions; no program amount is attributed to this action.
Assigned rolesRoles recordedPublic sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.
EngagementRole recordedRecorded executing role: DIU and selected Service innovation organization. Use the responsible program’s process.
Confidence: High on express authority and cited conditions; execution assignment is illustrative unless statute expressly names it.
Currentness: GovInfo 2024 Code (includes FY2025 NDAA, P.L. 118-159) read in full for cited provision; targeted FY2026 NDAA P.L. 119-60 amendment/repeal sweep. No claim of complete legislative currency through 2026-10-02; remaining 2026 delta needs counsel validation.
Review scope: Original research target October 2, 2026; no record-specific last-review date supplied. Publication is not legal-currentness certification.