Vice President for Research Fawwaz Ulaby and his colleagues from other Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago urged Congress to include more university-based and basic research in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) portfolio.

“Universities are a valuable source of innovative thinking that can provide real benefits to making the nation safer,” said Ulaby, who chairs the Council on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Senior Research Officers this year.

CIC met last week with congressional staff members for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and the House Science Committee to provide the academic community’s perspective on DHS science and technology programs.

Ulaby also urged that all research funding within DHS be awarded through the competitive peer-review process, much as grants are handled now for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The research officers also advocated that DHS award funds directly to individual investigators in addition to its university centers program, which funds more collaborative research efforts. The research officers said this would help find new technologies in the future that can help protect the nation, while also furthering basic scientific knowledge.