The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate has reorganized its laboratories and centers of excellence to strengthen their alignment with mission needs.
The reorganization affected the Office of National Laboratories (ONL), which leverages a coordinated network of DHS and Department of Energy national laboratories to deliver technologies vital to the DHS and the national homeland security mission.
The office ensures the safe, secure, and compliant management and operations of S&T’s five in-house laboratories, which include seven sites located in five states:
Chemical Security Analysis Center – Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center – Fort Detrick, Maryland
National Urban Security Technology Laboratory – New York City (Manhattan), New York
Plum Island Animal Disease Center – Orient Point, New York
Transportation Security Laboratory – Atlantic City, New Jersey
TSL Detection Technology Center – Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, Improvised Explosives Detection and Synthesis Center, Huntsville, Alabama
TSL Tyndall Reactive Materials Group, Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City, Florida
While the office “has not necessarily gone away,” S&T has added some functions and capabilities, according to Jamie Wells, executive director of S&T’s laboratories and academic centers, who oversees the directorate’s intramural, enduring research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E). That includes the five laboratories, academic centers of excellence and academic internship programs. It also includes a couple of divisions focused on specific technology areas, one on biometrics identity and advanced computing, and the other on expeditionary and red team assessment.
“The Office of National Laboratories, prior to the reshaping that Science and Technology has done over the last year, was focused on managing those five laboratories within DHS S&T and also managing our relationship with the Department of Energy national labs. Those functions still absolutely exist within the laboratories and academic centers,” Wells reported during a SIGNAL Media interview. “We’ve essentially added on to what have traditionally been ONL capabilities to include those other functions.”
The reorganization also affected the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). “We created the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency around a mission center concept. So, HSARPA is the portion of S&T that’s responsible for delivering research and development to our components in support of their operational needs, and we’ve organized that into three different mission centers that are aligned with the various missions within the department,” Wells explained.
Overall, the changes help the labs and academic centers to better support HSARPA projects, he indicated. “What this new construct enables us to do is have HSARPA focused on managing research and development programs that deliver capabilities to components, while the laboratories and academic centers maintain our enduring capabilities that assist in delivering discrete capabilities through HSARPA projects.”