The University Research Initiative (URI) was created as a way to provide universities with money for equipment, training and research in areas felt to have military value. Congress, in a burst of enthusiasm for basic research, added $75 million to the Pentagon's initial $25 million program request. Cuts mandated by the GrammRudman law pared the 1986 appropriation to $90 million, and Congress approved only $34 million for the program in 1987 because the 1986 money was not released until the end of the fiscal year.
Funding for the program was expected to grow each year, supporting a stream of new, multi-year awards. But the high initial level of funding, although it gave the program a flying start, made it unlikely that new awards would be made until the initial grants expired.
Continuing annual appropriations of $90 million to $100 million are needed to fund the multi-year URI contracts at current ...
