Centers of Excellence

The Department of Homeland Security is harnessing the nation’s scientific knowledge and technological expertise to protect America and our way of life from terrorism. The Department’s Science and Technology directorate, through its Office of University Programs, is furthering this mission by engaging the academic community to create learning and research environments in areas critical to Homeland Security. Through the Homeland Security Centers of Excellence program, Homeland Security is investing in university-based partnerships to develop centers of multi-disciplinary research where important fields of inquiry can be analyzed and best practices developed, debated, and shared. The Department’s Homeland Security Centers of Excellence bring together the nation’s best experts and focus its most talented researchers on a variety of threats that include agricultural, chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological, explosive and cyber terrorism as well as the behavioral aspects of terrorism.

Fact sheets about the COEs

Official fact sheets distributed by DHS

Interviews with the COE directors (audio)

In April-May 2007, the public radio program 'Homeland Security Inside & Out' (hlsinsideandout.org) broadcast 10 minute interviews with each of the directors of the DHS Center of Excellence. This folder contains the audio files for each of those broadcasts.

Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA)

Michigan State University was awarded $10 million over the next five years to house the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA), jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. will provide policy-makers and first responders with the information they need to protect human life from biological threats and to set decontamination goals by focusing on two primary objectives. The first objective is a technical mission to develop models, tools, and information that can be used to reduce or eliminate health impacts from the deliberate indoor or outdoor use of biological agents. The second objective is a knowledge management mission to build a national network for information transfer about microbial risk assessment among universities, professionals, and communities. (Awarded October 2005.)

Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE)

The University of Southern California (partnering with the University of Wisconsin at Madison, New York University, North Carolina State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, and others) is home to the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE). DHS is providing the University of Southern California and its partners with $12 million over the course of the next three years for the study of risk analysis related to the economic consequences of terrorist threats and events. (Awarded November 2003.)

National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD)

The University of Minnesota and its partners have been awarded $15 million over the course of the next three years for the Homeland Security Center for Food Protection and Defense, which will address agro-security issues related to post-harvest food protection. The University of Minnesota’s team includes partnerships with major food companies as well as other universities including Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, North Dakota State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Harvard University, University of Tennessee, Cornell University, Purdue University and North Carolina State University. (Awarded April 2004.)

Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response(PACER)

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and its partners have been awarded $15 million over the next three years for the Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response. This fifth Homeland Security Center of Excellence will study deterrence, prevention, preparedness and response, including issues such as risk assessment, decision-making, infrastructure integrity, surge capacity and sensor networks. In particular, it will study interactions of networks and the need to use models and simulations. (Awarded December 2005)

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)

The University of Maryland and its major partners, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Colorado, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of South Carolina, were awarded $12 million over the course of three years for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). This Center ddresses a set of broad, challenging questions on the causes of terrorism and strategies to counter terrorism, developing the tools necessary to improve our understanding of, and response to, the magnitude of the threat, examining the psychological impact of terrorism on society, and strengthening the population’s resilience in the face of the terrorism. (Awarded January 2005.)