Defense Tech: RESEARCHERS SHACK UP IN REALINGMENT: "Several of the Pentagon's most important centers of science and technology development -- including the mad scientists at Darpa, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research -- are all going to leave their old offices behind, and become roommates at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

The moves will save a bit of money -- $573 million over 20 years, the Defense Department figures. And they'll probably help with security, by taking these groups out of leased office buildings, and onto a military base.

More importantly, being neighbors might help these far-thinking research groups get rid of some overlap as they hand out grants to scientists and engineers. "

...

"Maybe some of that duplication can be squeezed out, under the new plan. Darpa's been criticized, recently, for straying from its mandate to fund way-out, "blue sky" research. Having agencies nearby that are funding the here-and-now might help Darpa return to its mission."

(Via a DefenseTech.)