U.S. Air Force Awards UF $49 Million Contract

Continuing a long tradition of partnership.

Courtesy of Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering

This image depicts the REEF building near the Eglin Air Force Base in the Panhandle.

UF’s regional engineering campus near Eglin Air Force Base will receive $49 million for developments and innovations after the U.S. Air Force awarded the University of Florida funding, thus continuing a long-standing partnership. 

This funding will be utilized by the Florida Applied Research in Engineering (FLARE), a part of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, for research and development to support the goals of the Air Force Research Laboratory and Eglin Air Force Base missions. According to a statement by the Department of Defense, the Research and Engineering Education Facility (REEF) will support the “academic core of regional innovation, education and workforce development competency.”

The purpose is to continue the development of the Base’s next generation of weapons development. The funding will support the REEF campus’s aim of fostering growth through the intersections of academics, regional innovation, and workforce development. 

Students will benefit from expanding the REEF campus, which will include customized courses and certificate programs that address the needs of Eglin’s technology investment areas and mission. The investment will support a technology incubator lab and will be used to research emerging technologies. 

Of this development, Vigeant states that this partnership will be mutually beneficial, suggesting that this will accelerate and expand research and entrepreneurship in coalition with addressing critical security questions. He continued, “This will in turn attract and produce the talent to match their urgent mid and near-term needs and simultaneously enhance STEM programs to match their long-term workforce needs.”

The UF FLARE and REEF regional director Richard Vigeant emphasized the partnership stating “This will align operations with Eglin Air Force Base’s next-generation weapons development to build on our long-standing partnership with more synergy facilitated by a professional team led by FLARE, which has collaborated closely with Team Eglin since 2019 to deliver unique tools, technology and research at the REEF Campus.” 

This $49 million investment will continue the tradition of partnership between the University of Florida and Eglin Air Force Base. The UF REEF in the Panhandle was originally constructed in 1995. Prior to this construction, this program served as a Graduate Engineering Research Center of the Air Force in 1969. With the purpose of supporting the needs of the warfighter, this 20-acre regional campus serves as a space for the synergy of private, academic, and public sectors to innovate.

Vigeant stated, “Our long-standing partnership has, and will continue to enhance the education and training of Team Eglin’s workforce with graduate engineering level programs at both the master’s and doctorate levels, as well as certification programs and technology development.”