Happy New Year everyone! S&T is excited to work you in the coming months and encourages you to get connected and involved to drive opportunities to work together. S&T’s resolution for 2016 centers around mobilizing innovation to secure our world!
Because of rapid advancements in technology, adapting to change is an inherent part of our lives and, by extension, is the “new normal.” And the fact that we’re seeing more evolving threats, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and intensified natural disasters means we must think and act differently about the role science and technology plays in keeping our nation safe. Additionally, to maintain public services, keep commerce running, and ensure education, healthcare, and banking systems go uninterrupted we must also find more efficient ways of carrying out DHS missions.
Over the last year, S&T has actively been changing the way it does business by reinventing how government conducts research and development. By engaging industry innovators, including startups, accelerators, and small businesses, S&T is finding and deploying cutting-edge technologies faster to enhance operational capabilities and ultimately, save lives. To achieve greater results, S&T needs your help mobilizing your networks, ideas, resources, talents, and imagination to think of “art of possible” solutions, to address the unique needs facing our homeland security landscape.
Building off S&T’s Visionary Goals, I am excited about the innovation culture taking shape across the department. Our focus is reshaping how end users work together with entrepreneurial fields like biometrics, biological defense, data analytics, robotics, and design thinking. These multidisciplinary fields are increasingly found in local and regional hubs across the country where S&T is integrating teams of researchers, scientists, private industry, and end-users, to solve short and long-term problems and develop the next generation of homeland security leaders.
To keep pace with the speed of innovation, S&T will enhance industry partnerships and help officials realize marketplace opportunities connected to important mission areas like biothreat awareness, aviation, maritime, and critical infrastructure protections, resilient cities, and public safety operations. In 2016, we will be increasing opportunities for companies to put prototypes in the hands of homeland security operators and first responders to experiment, test, and evaluate, technologies solutions before getting them to market.
To make the right impacts at the right time, we must use all the tools at our disposal. For this to happen, we must mobilize your innovative capacity to secure our world. Whether at events like the Consumer Electronics Show, an innovative roundtable discussion in your community, or on-line, I look forward to working with you and wish you continued safety and security for years to come.
To learn more about S&T’s business practices and how you can plug into S&T’s new R&D model, visit: scitech.dhs.gov/business-opportunities. For general inquiries on how you can help S&T mobilize innovation, please email: SandT.Innovation@hq.dhs.gov
Dr. Reginald Brothers
Under Secretary for Science and Technology