WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), today announced a $40 million funding opportunity for an institution to lead a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE) for Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis. DHS S&T is additionally searching for potential partners to work with the lead institution in support of the Center’s activities.
These two related funding opportunities, posted at http://www.grants.gov/, are open to receive proposals from accredited U.S. colleges and universities. The deadline for submitting proposals is September 1, 2016. DHS intends to fund this new COE for 10 years for a total of approximately $40 million through a cooperative agreement.
This new COE will conduct end user-focused research to enhance investigation strategies of transnational criminal organizations’ (TCO) activities and other homeland security-related crimes. The overarching goal of the Center will be to develop methods, tools, knowledge products, and technology-based solutions for agents, officers and investigators to better predict, thwart and prosecute these crimes.
DHS is soliciting proposals from multi-disciplinary research teams that have research experience and concentration in criminal investigations and network analysis. The research teams will work closely with DHS and other criminal investigators to develop successful innovations to dismantle TCOs. The teams will need to cover a variety of academic disciplines including criminology, engineering, and mathematics.
The S&T COEs are university consortia that work closely with DHS operating components to conduct research, develop and mission-relevant science and technology, and educate the next generation of homeland security technical experts. Each COE is led by a U.S. college or university and has multiple partners from universities, industry, DHS, federally funded research and development centers, and other federal state and local agencies.
The notice of funding opportunities for the Center for Criminal Investigations lead institution and partner institution are available at grants.gov.
For additional information about the DHS COEs, visit DHS S&T Centers of Excellence. DHS will conduct a webinar for interested applicants available at Informational Webinar on June 21, 2016 at 3 p.m. EDT.