Fireside Chat: SECDEF Innovation Priorities

Glean insights on how the Department of Defense is creating opportunities for technology innovators — in this session, leadership in the Office of the Secretary of Defense give a behind-the-scenes look at the research and engineering ecosystem and technology priorities.

What you’ll find out

• Roles of DoD’s research and engineering organizations (01:38)
• Joint experimentation takes off (06:30)
• How DIU works with innovators (11:00)
• Paving over the valley of death (15:23)
• Technology priorities for the future (16:50)
• Emerging technologies of interest (20:40)

Key quotes

• “Never before has innovation and commercial technology had this level of spotlight across the Department.” — Mike Brown, DIU, Director (01:19)
• “My goal is to harness this nation’s incredible amount of innovation, to stay ahead of our adversaries. and enable seamless integration of critical technologies to be a force multiplier for our U.S. military. That’s my goal.” — Ms. Heidi Shyu, DoD, Under Secretary of Research and Engineering (02:00)
• “I want to leverage commercial companies R&D so I can accelerate the incorporation of the latest tech into the DoD so it can shrink the development-to-production timeline.” — Ms. Heidi Shyu, DoD, Under Secretary of Research and Engineering (06:05)
• “DIU has done a marvelous job working with the users to identify the problems they have and from the problem space, going out to commercial companies who have a product that can solve this problem. The fact that you can provide ceiling funding helps the innovative smaller companies to really nurture their ideas and build the product and showcase it. DIU is a great entry into this.” — Ms. Heidi Shyu, DoD, Under Secretary of Research and Engineering (11:04)
• “Our newest portfolio at DIU is advanced energy materials. Also, how can we be greener? Not just about climate change but how to have a more resilient force that’s not tied to a supply chain. Another priority we have is cyber. That affects almost every technology we deploy today and we have to be sure they’re secure.” — Mike Brown, DIU, Director (22:22)
• “We can’t do what we need to at the Defense Department alone just with federal dollars. We need all the innovative capability and solutions you’re developing for the commercial market.” — Mike Brown, DIU, Director (23:50)

Who you’ll hear from

Ms. Heidi Shyu, DoD, Under Secretary of Research and Engineering

Mike Brown, DIU, Director

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