On February 7th, Governor Mark R. Warner announced the creation of the Virginia Institute for Defense and Homeland Security (IDHS), a consortium of Virginia universities partnering with industry to develop solutions to our nation's security challenges. The interdisciplinary consortium is intended to facilitate collaborative, cutting-edge basic and applied research that would be extremely difficult to accomplish at individual institutions, labs, or firms. Initially, it will emphasize research in the fields of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Bio-defense, Sensor Systems, and Risk Assessment and Management.

IIIT Director, Leonard Ferrari, has been leading the development of the Institute in his role as Special Assistant to Virginia's Secretary of Technology, George Newstrom. The IDHS, says Ferrari, "makes sense for the Nation, for Virginia and for research universities in the Commonwealth."

The idea for a Virginia Institute emerged from a series of meetings between Virginia Tech, the Department of the Navy, and several other federal agencies. In Fall of 2002, the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission discussed the idea of a consortium integrating Virginia's world-class research centers with industry to develop solutions to our nation's security challenges. Over the subsequent five months, with support and encouragement from Secretary Newstrom and in conjunction with Secretary of Education Belle Wheelan, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Michael Schewel, Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness John Hager, and the CIT, planning for the Institute moved forward. Ultimately, fourteen Virginia universities agreed to participate as founding members, including Virginia Tech.

The Institute is expected to pass through several stages of development during the next five years. During the first year of operation, IDHS will establish its university center membership, create a strong corporate affiliate program, obtain seed funds through Virginia's Congressional Delegation, and obtain research contracts and grants through the competitive bid process. It is likely that the early focus of the Institute will be in areas of defense where Virginia's universities and companies have a strong history and funding records. The Institute will operate as a networked, virtual organization during this phase of development with a small administrative office at the CIT.

As the Department of Homeland Security matures over the next several years, there will be several opportunities for the IDHS consortium to compete at the national level for a large award as a defense/homeland security university research center. These awards are likely to be funded at levels in the tens of millions of dollars and will be granted to groups that have a demonstrated ability to perform in specific S&T areas and that have a decided set of advantages over their competition. The proximity to federal agencies and military bases in Virginia provides the Consortium with a major advantage over other states and consortia. As homeland security opportunities grow, the Institute will experience a gradual shift from an expected dominance of defense funding in years 1 and 2, to a more balanced emphasis on defense and homeland security. Response to the competitive bid process is expected to continue but with expansion into other science and technology areas.

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and Virginia industries will play key roles in IDHS. As an objective party, CIT will house the IDHS, help bring together University and Industry representatives, and facilitate relationships among consortium members and Federal Agencies. Initially, CIT may also serve as a conduit for federal and private sector dollars flowing to IDHS member institutions.

Virginia industries, which include companies working in virtually every area of defense and homeland security, will join IDHS to provide guidance on deployment-related research issues, examine evolving intellectual property for solution application, and link large-scale federal projects to university research centers. IDHS member companies will strengthen their own contract proposals by being able to reference their interaction with IDHS member Universities.

Industry will not only help steer the IDHS, it will provide critical seed funding for research initiatives. The private sector membership strategy will include three types of affiliate members. Industry partners will receive preferential access to IDHS facilities and intellectual property, participate in IDHS policy formation, and the ability to reference and include IDHS in their proposals.

Structure & Funding

Funding for the institute will come from the federal government, Virginia's universities, Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, and private sector companies. Virginia's IDHS strategy is to identify and respond to agency solicitations in areas of university core competency across all agencies, including the newly formed Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, and applications for university-based centers for homeland security. In parallel with these efforts, IDHS will work with Virginia's Congressional Delegation to obtain seed funds for specific projects of interest to federal agencies.

The IDHS will have an Executive Steering Committee, which will form policies, create vision, and monitor the organization's activities. Senior executives and officials from academia, industry, and federal and state government will serve on the committee, providing perspectives and input from the Institute's constituent groups. Each university member will have a membership on the steering committee. An Operations Committee will be responsible for providing direction on operational issues and ensuring Executive Steering Committee policy and decisions are carried out.

The IDHS will be comprised initially of four divisions focused on the key research areas: Telecommunications and IT, Biodefense, Sensor Systems, and Risk Management and Assessment. Divisions will be comprised of Centers of Excellence, Institutes, and research teams resident at member Universities, such that each division will be multi-university and cross-disciplinary. The role of each Division within IDHS will be to facilitate and submit joint proposals, and then carry out joint research projects. Divisions will also have an appropriate educational/training mission.

The fourteen founding universities are (in alphabetical order):

College of William and Mary
Eastern Virginia Medical School
George Mason University
George Washington University
Hampton University
James Madison University
Norfolk State University
Old Dominion University
Shenandoah University
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia State University

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