For NASA to hand that off to a college with an initial eleven-million dollar
grant, I'd speculate that they have already confirmed the effect in
question...
I am thinking they are now working on producing it in sufficient quantities
and dimensions to make it applicable to practical use...
Indeed, it looks like the length they have in mind will reach space--if so,
that monopole will make a good muli-wavelength antenna for ultra-lowfers!!!
Perhaps it will be naturally resonant at the Shuman frequency and Earth
itself will begin to CQ DX! grin

Regards,
John