Mission
Empower the research community to make security-informed decisions about research security concerns.
5
Enhance the capacity, situational awareness and equitable access of the research community as they make security-informed decisions.
4
Deliver a Shared Virtual Environment (SVE) where community members can come together in a safe, protected, supportive environment to learn from and share co-created solutions.
3
Develop and apply a structured, collaborative process that brings together research security community members, designers, and developers to identify their most urgent and high-impact challenges to co-create practical, effective solutions that address those needs.
2
Build and inspire community, collaborative spirit, trust, and shared solution ownership among the research community and funding agencies.
1
Develop, maintain and sustain the SECURE Center as an organization to support the research community.
Year 1 Strategic Goals
SECURE Center Timeline
The NSF SECURE Center was awarded to the University of Washington (PI: Dr. Mark Haselkorn) with a funding period of September 1, 2024 through August 31, 2029. We expect to launch a set of initial products and services (Minimum Viable Products, or MVP) during Year 1; make further progress to support the duties as outlined in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 in Year 2; and perform all duties completely by the end of Year 5.
SECURE Center Location
The SECURE Center operates as a mostly virtual organization with team members and activities happening throughout the U.S.
The National Center is located in Seattle, Washington at the University of Washington.
The Regional Centers are based out of Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University; Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University; Kansas City, Missouri at the University of Missouri; College Station, Texas at Texas A & M University; Fort Collins, Colorado at Colorado State University; and Seattle, Washington at the University of Washington.
The Expert and Values Areas are based out of Starkville, Mississippi at Mississippi State University; South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame University; Palo Alto, California at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio at the University of Cincinnati; Charleston, South Carolina at MindCette, LLC; and Raleigh, North Carolina at Impulsion Consulting, LLC.
Our Vision
Deliver a shared virtual environment that research community members use to enhance the security of the value they produce, without harming the collaboration that is critical to their production of that value.
Our Values
Collaborate with and help integrate a research community that achieves enhanced security based on integrity, respect, trust, openness, and sharing.
Why Does the SECURE Center Exist?
Every day, security and integrity violations disrupt and subvert the success of critical research that greatly benefits the United States and the world. At the same time, major scientific breakthroughs and technical developments occur through collaborative efforts that include international partners.
To help the research community mitigate foreign threats to the security and integrity of the U.S. research enterprise, Section 10338(a) of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 directed the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a Research Security & Integrity Information Sharing Analysis Organization, which has subsequently been rebranded the NSF SECURE Center, standing for Safeguarding the Entire Community of the U.S. Research Ecosystem.
NSF published solicitation NSF 23-613 seeking proposals from organizations interested in establishing and running the NSF SECURE Center, a non-government entity that will form a bridge between the U.S. Government and the research community to empower the research community to meet research security requirements by providing information, tools, and other services.
How It All Started
The SECURE Center is a non-government, independent entity formed to address foreign government interference, support security-informed decision-making, and serve as a conduit that connects research community stakeholders with one another and with U.S. government (USG) agencies via NSF. The SECURE Center is led by the University of Washington’s Center on Collaborative Systems for Security, Safety, and Resilience (CoSSaR).