S&T is changing the way we do business. Leveraging partnerships to find or develop emerging, innovative technologies to support homeland security needs is central to these changes.
We have invested in new initiatives—like prize competitions and the Homeland Security Innovation Program—that allow us to join forces with innovators and technology developers who can help us solve some of the most challenging homeland security issues.
We are continuing to move this effort forward with our Innovation Strategy. This document formalizes how we plan to put technology into the hands of our operators at DHS and provides opportunities for many of you to help us with your ideas, prototypes, or technologies.
The goals of our strategy are clear: Discover; Partner; and Transition.
As a Department we are continually assessing our needs and looking at current technology trends to discover tools, technologies, and solutions that will help us meet existing and emerging needs. By clearly communicating homeland security needs to our partners, we will expand our technology scouting capability—across industry, academia, other government agencies, and our international partners—to find effective solutions.
We will continue to build strong partnerships by leveraging a variety of mechanisms that allow innovators to partner with S&T and develop technologies that meet DHS priority needs.
Most importantly, we want to transition innovative technologies to end users across the homeland security enterprise. S&T provides information and support to facilitate the commercialization of technology solutions for homeland security.
I want to encourage any technology developer, innovator, or company who may be interested to engage with S&T. Visit us at our website to learn more about how we’re working with start-ups, and using Long Range Broad Agency Announcements, the DHS Small Business Innovation Research Program and prize competitions.
With these partnership programs, we are committed to providing opportunities to bring needed technologies to market and to help the officers, agents, firefighters, emergency managers, cybersecurity professionals, and other operators who protect our communities and our homeland. Your innovative ideas will be making a difference for them and for the greater mission of the Department.
So what’s next?
You’ll be hearing more from us around specific topics and opportunities like Operational Experiments, which demonstrate technologies in realistic, operational settings; Industry Days that allow us to engage a variety of potential private sector partners; and live social media events that allow you to connect virtually with S&T and learn more about how to get involved.
You’ll also hear more about our wide array of partnership opportunities, like prize competitions, our work with accelerators, the SAFETY Act program, and how we are working with universities in our Centers of Excellence to find solutions.
So please stay tuned. We look forward to partnering with you to discover, develop, and transition the next generation of technologies to the front lines of homeland security!
Have thoughts on working with S&T? Tweet at us @dhsscitech or message us on Facebook!