The Acquisition Innovation and Research Center

Cultivating innovation and transformative research across academia, government and industry

Mission

Innovation and Evidence-Based Decision Making to Improve Acquisition Outcomes

A learning organization that reaches across the Department of Defense (DoD) to enable innovation and evidence-based decision making manifested through policy, organizational change management, and workforce development.

Learn More

Collaborators

AIRC provides a collaboration platform for engaging stakeholders within the extended DoD Acquisition Enterprise, thought leaders from across the nation, and researchers across academia.

Steven's Institue
University of Southern California
University of Southern California
University of Southern California
Carnegie Mellon University
Georgetown University
Georgia Tech
Massachusetts Institue of Technology
Missouri State
Naval Postgraduate
North Carolina State University
Old Dominion University
Penn State University
Purdue University
Texas A&M
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Maryland
UMass Amherst
University of Virginia
University of South Florida
Virginia Tech
Wayne State University

Engagement

The AIRC will continuously engage the talents of leaders, researchers and subject matter experts from across its network of universities to create an ecosystem that promotes innovation in academic analysis and policy alternatives for improved defense acquisition outcomes powered by evidence-based, data driven decision making.

AIRC Engagement Pathways Incubate Ideate Respond Connect

Incubate

Selected Sponsors and Offices within the DoD define priority themes (e.g., Acquisition and T&E), and the research community responds with innovative ideas to explore within these priority themes.

Ideate

AIRC provides a platform for the community of researchers to propose innovative ideas for experiments and pilots for the relevant sponsors and offices to consider.

Respond

AIRC provides a resource to the Sponsors and Offices within the DoD to explore innovative approaches to specific priorities.

Connect

AIRC connects a network of the top academic and research faculty across its university collaborators to address emergent questions. The AIRC's flexible contracting approach allows for a Sponsor to quickly bring together an expert or group of experts from across the collaborator universities for focused panels, workshops, studies, or other engagements.

AIRC in the News

U.S. Department of Defense Taps Stevens Institute of Technology to Improve Defense Acquisition System
Nov. 30, 2020

U.S. Department of Defense Taps Stevens Institute of Technology to Improve Defense Acquisition System

New center led by Stevens will support the transformation of the defense acquisition system to help the DoD respond to the rapid technological advancements critical to today's warfighter.

(Hoboken, N.J. – Nov. 30, 2020) – In an increasingly complex global security environment, Stevens Institute of Technology has been tapped to leverage its top systems engineering researchers as well as its nationwide network of experts from universities across...

Read More