The Department of Defense has awarded a contract valued at up to $500 million to a University of Maryland research facility focused on national security matters.
If awarded in full over the next few years, the contract awarded to the 6-year-old Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) would be the largest the university has ever received from a federal agency.
As part of the contract, the DOD will help fund ARLIS, one of 15 DOD-designated university-affiliated research centers across the country and the only one dedicated to intelligence and security efforts specifically.
In an email statement, UMd. spokesperson Kristin Jones told me that the indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract will start off as a one-year agreement between ARLIS and the Pentagon and comes with four additional option years. The various task orders for the contract that the DOD submits are not to exceed the full $500 million amount.
