Basic research opportunities focused on bio-based and bio-inspired materials and potential applications

The U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) serves as the Army’s premier extramural basic research agency in the engineering, physical, information and life sciences. ARO drives the national basic research agenda and programs in these areas to create new scientific discoveries and increase knowledge through highrisk, high-payoff research opportunities with academia and industry. ARO also ensures that the results of these efforts are made available to the Army research and development community for the pursuit of long-term technological applications. ARO is supporting emerging research opportunities in the areas of bio-based and bio-inspired materials that focus on four primary goals: (i) Using biology to produce materials, (ii) Using biology as a material, (iii) Integrating biology with synthetic materials, and (iv) Imparting properties inherent in biological systems to materials.