This week marks the final series of our Virtual Whole-of-Government R&D Showcase. Our attention to building research, development, and innovation (RD&I) partnerships underscores the broad movement among the global research community that greater collaborations are needed to get ahead of global security threats—including the climate crisis, cybersecurity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it closes the showcase, in many ways series 4 marks the beginning of a new phase of U.S. RD&I investments, where leaders from government and industry recognize more strategic cooperation is needed to ensure the nation can effectively prepare, respond, and adapt to potential life-changing emergent threats.
S&T’s whole-of-government approach provides organizations that share the common goal of enhancing security and resilience with new opportunities to strengthen cross-disciplinary coordination, pool investment funding, and leverage new technological and scientific advances. We not only get more done—in less time—when we partner, but we get to exchange new ideas, enhance equity, and adopt best practices, which are essential for building the capacity and agility needed to prepare the nation for a future crisis.
Thank you to all our partners, who continue to support S&T’s mission in turning research into action to protect our way of life. More than 40 whole-of-government organizations, representing federal, state, local, and international governments, came together over nine weeks to host 20 virtual panel discussions and social media promotional videos. The mutual support and expertise embedded into the showcase mirrors the urgency to move research from the lab into the world through science-based guidance.
To keep pace with future threats, don’t miss our discussion with international partners from the Five Eyes—the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand—which covers how S&T is working with our closest allies to share ideas and leverage specialized capabilities to reduce risks and protect our economies in areas of transportation security, public safety, and climate resilience.
Also, catch our Office of University Programs discussion, which captures how the department is partnering with minority serving institutions, including the University of the District of Columbia, to develop next-generation scientists and engineers. This conversation exemplifies how S&T and colleagues from the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are opening new doors to hands-on research, experiential, and career opportunities and thinking more inclusively about social sciences, diversity, and what skills and background will be needed over the next 20 years to secure the homeland.
Recognizing the need to focus near-term and over-the-horizon, we’re also highlighting our S&T national laboratory system, which provides nationwide security operators with life-saving tools for decision-making, risk analysis, and threat characterization and detection in areas like transportation screening, chemical and biological threat mitigation, and first responder technologies. And to bring the showcase to a close, join our conversation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Army Research Lab, which addresses the tangible benefits of interagency collaborations to further the transfer of knowledge and accelerate the commercialization of new technologies across the homeland security enterprise and beyond.
At a time when the country faces new demands and uncertainties, the department needs the best minds in research, science, and innovation coming together to equip our workforce with the best tools available. This is the value that S&T brings to the department and why our whole-of-government approach to unifying research and achieving common security goals on behalf of the American public, makes this showcase a timely resource for those working at the intersection of technology and policy and those who create and benefit from the science.