The University Leadership Initiative is an ARMD initiative with the endorsement of the National Research council that started in 2015. Solicitations go out yearly. ARMD intends the research from the ULI to assist NASA in achieving the long-term aviation outcomes defined in the ARMD Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP).
University-led teams will independently define the technical challenges needed to advance the strategic thrusts defined in the SIP. They will then lay out milestones and conduct the research activities needed to achieve their own technical challenges.
As part of this initiative, NASA intends to directly connect multi-disciplinary research on challenging aeronautics problems with the development of the next generation of researchers and engineers. To meet this goal, lead organizations in future solicitations will be limited to U.S. accredited colleges and universities. Proposing institutions will be invited and encouraged to incorporate other colleges or universities, industry members, non-profit organizations, or other U.S.-based entities as team members. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and other minority-serving institutions are strongly encouraged to participate. An important part of the leadership role assumed by proposing organizations involves including, nurturing, and fully integrating the capabilities of partner schools that may be less-established or have less prior experience working on NASA Aeronautics research projects.
For further information on the University Leadership Initiative, please contact hq-univpartnerships@mail.nasa.gov.
The ULI Roadshow Archive is a high visibility lecture series held at NASA Centers. NASA has created ULI where by its nature the ULI teams work separately from NASA. These faculty lectures highlight the ULI research to NASA personnel and encourages non-ULI collaboration opportunities.