Kevin Smith, vice provost for research at the Naval Postgraduate School, anticipates that the newly established Office of Research and Innovation at the U.S. Navy-operated school will advance relevant research on emerging technologies to provide new warfighting capabilities.

The office was created to help provide full-spectrum capabilities necessary to progress the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy’s shared goal of maintaining U.S. technological superiority, NPS announced on Monday.

“OR&I will be a support mechanism to take NPS’ research enterprise to an entirely new level, leveraging our naval innovation ecosystem – a network of academia, defense researchers and industry working with NPS faculty, students and the operational fleet,” Smith said.

Smith leads OR&I as it seeks to support foundational research, encourage faculty and student engagement and facilitate formalized relationships to help prepare the Navy and Marine Corps for globally integrated and all-domain operations.

The office works with the Naval Warfare Studies Institute in establishing interdisciplinary, multi-organizational research teams to promote swift innovation, prototyping and experimentation.