As the statewide leader in defense and security research, NC State’s Defense and Security Institute is a bold new initiative to strategically coordinate defense-related research efforts, develop the next-generation defense workforce, and secure the ecosystem critical to supporting compliance and contracting for defense and security agencies. This initiative is being supported during the planning phase by NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science.

Goals

The Defense and Security Institute’s goals are to:

• Grow NC State’s institutional capacity for addressing the nation’s defense and security needs.
• Build a cohort of faculty, staff and students proficient in understanding and working successfully within the culture of national security and defense research, including the nature of classified research; how to handle dissertations containing controlled unclassified information and export-controlled research; and the requirements for classified-level security clearance in future careers.
• Lead networking and partnership development with U.S. military and national security organizations, including federal research laboratories, in order to grow connections between these organizations and NC State researchers, as well as our university’s defense and national security research portfolio.
• Build and establish centralized institutional knowledge around complex contracting vehicles, positioning NC State to be “turnkey” ready to compete for large new defense and security programs.
• Contribute to North Carolina’s growing Defense Industrial Base (DIB) through technology transfer, commercialization, partnerships and entrepreneurship opportunities — heightening the economic impact of the institution in our state.
• Align with NC’s defense and security industry needs through roadmapping, roundtables, and innovation accelerators
• Centralize communications about NC State’s research and educational contributions to defense and national security, ensuring harmonized storytelling with NC State and NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation
• Influence the NC State academic culture to better understand and recognize performance on defense and national security research in hiring and promotion processes. Additional specific instructional and workforce development goals include: Train a defense- and security-ready workforce through credentials in CUI, TRL/MRL, and defense research culture
• Connect students to defense and security careers via internships, fellowships, and senior design partnerships
• Upskill faculty and staff with short courses on DoD proposals, compliance, and contracting

Current Collaborative Agreements

NC State University and the UNC System are actively engaged in many collaborative and cooperative research agreements with the DoD and other defense-related organizations. These agreements, which allow us to more quickly stand up sponsored research projects in response to immediate military needs, include but are not limited to:

• National Laboratory Initiative – NC State actively collaborates with many national laboratories to support our educational mission and further research discovery.
• Educational Partnership Agreements – NC State and the UNC System have EPAs with several defense-related organizations, including the 75th Army Reserve Innovation Command; Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division; XVIII Airborne Corps (Army); Army Research Laboratory; National Security Agency; AFWERX (Air Force); and the National Security Innovation Network.
• Memoranda of Agreement/Understanding – The UNC System has MOA/MOUs to facilitate the development of relationships with DoD organizations, including the United States Army Special Operations Command; Marine Forces Special Operations Command; Marine Corps Fleet Readiness Center East; North Carolina National Guard; Bunker Labs (supporting veteran entrepreneurship); and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes (supporting student veteran employment).
• Cooperative Research and Development Agreements – CRADAs are an agreement between a government agency and the university to partner together on specific research and development. No funding is exchanged under a CRADA, but each organization provides people, facilities, equipment, and other resources to support its own researchers. Recent CRADAs with NC State include
  • Army Aviation Development Directorate (Eustis) for materials development;
  • Army Natick Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center for textiles development; and
  • Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, focused on measuring the impact of textiles on human physiology in military environments.
• Consortia: NC State is a member of several consortia that help identify funding opportunities for members:
  • North Carolina Center for Optimizing Military Performance, supporting opportunities for soldier health and performance;
  • Institute of Applied Engineering Academic Consortium, supporting opportunities with the Special Operations Commands;
  • Pathfinder Airborne, supporting opportunities to collaborate with the 82nd Airborne;
  • Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Consortium, focused on rapid prototyping of countering WMD efforts;
  • TradewindsAI, focused on AI/ML solutions for the DoD; and
  • Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, for advanced fiber and fabric technology and manufacturing development.

Sponsors and Support

NC State research is sponsored by and supports a wide variety of defense and security agencies, including but not limited to: 

• Department of Defense (DoD)
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  (DARPA)
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
• Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
• National Security Agency (NSA)
• US Air Force (USAF)
  • US Air Force – Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
  • Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
• US Army
  • US Army – Army Research Office (ARO)
  • US Army – Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
  • US Army – Corps of Engineers
  • US Army – Soldier Systems Center (Natick)
• Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
• Department of the Navy
  • US Navy – Office Of Naval Research
  • US Navy – Naval Surface Warfare Center
  • US Navy – Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)