Funding Opportunities For Universities To Support Homeland Security R&D

http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/dhs-announces-two-funding-opportunities-for-universities-to-support-homeland-security-r-d/c39ab1c1fe606b48c07924b216377f19.html

DHS Announces Two Funding Opportunities For Universities To Support Homeland Security R&D

By: Homeland Security Today Staff

05/02/2014 (10:34am)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Office of University Programs announced two funding opportunities for US academic institutions to conduct homeland security research and education.

The first opportunity is a cooperative agreement, up to $20 million over a five-year period, to fund the creation of a new DHS S&T Center of Excellence (COE) for Coastal Resilience to conduct research enhancing the homeland security mission to safeguard people, infrastructure, communities and economies from catastrophic coastal natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes. The new Coastal Resilience Center will evaluate future climate trends and their impacts on coastal resilience, focusing specifically on the US East and Gulf Coast regions.

A second opportunity is a cooperative agreement, up to $20 million over a five-year period, to fund the creation of a new DHS S&T COE for Borders, Trade and Immigration Research to conduct research enhancing the homeland security mission to secure our borders, facilitate lawful trade and travel, effectively enforce our immigration and customs laws, grant immigration and citizenship benefits and, ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.

Both funding opportunities are seeking Center Lead and Center Partner institutions.

DHS COEs work closely with DHS component agencies to conduct research, develop and transition mission-relevant science and technology to an operational environment, and educate the next generation of homeland security technical experts. DHS funds the COEs through cooperative agreements, and each COE is led by a US college or university. COEs work with DHS to leverage existing relationships with public and private sector partners, as well as other subject matter experts, to enhance homeland security missions and capabilities in their topic areas.

The funding opportunity announcements are available at grants.gov for Coastal Resilience Center Lead institution and Partner institution, and for the Center for Borders, Trade and Immigration Research Lead institution and Partner institution.

For additional information about the DHS COEs, visit DHS S&T Centers of Excellence.

This may just be an initial list of Title IX educational institutions.     BEMA

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-list-higher-education-institutions-open-title-i 

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Releases List of Higher Education Institutions with Open Title IX Sexual Violence Investigations

MAY 1, 2014

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released today a list of the higher education institutions under investigation for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. In the past, Department officials confirmed individual Title IX investigations at institutions, but today's list is the first comprehensive look at which campuses are under review by OCR for possible violations of the law's requirements around sexual violence.

"We are making this list available in an effort to bring more transparency to our enforcement work and to foster better public awareness of civil rights," Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said. "We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue. I also want to make it clear that a college or university's appearance on this list and being the subject of a Title IX investigation in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law."

As with all OCR investigations, the primary goal of a Title IX investigation is to ensure that the campus is in compliance with federal law, which demands that students are not denied the ability to participate fully in educational and other opportunities due to sex.

The Department will not disclose any case-specific facts or details about the institutions under investigation. The list includes investigations opened because of complaints received by OCR and those initiated by OCR as compliance reviews. When an investigation concludes, the Department will disclose, upon request, whether OCR has entered into a resolution agreement to address compliance concerns at a particular campus or found insufficient evidence of a Title IX violation there.

The list of institutions under investigation for Title IX sexual violence issues will be updated regularly and made available to the public upon request by contacting OCR or to media by contacting the Press Office atpress@ed.gov.

Releasing this list advances a key goal of President Obama's White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault to bring more transparency to the federal government's enforcement activities around this issue. The Obama administration is committed to putting an end to sexual violence—particularly on college campuses. That's why the President established the Task Force earlier this year with a mandate to strengthen federal enforcement efforts and provide schools with additional tools to combat sexual assault on their campuses.

As part of that work, the Education Department released updated guidance earlier this week describing the responsibilities of colleges, universities and schools receiving federal funds to address sexual violence and other forms of sex discrimination under Title IX. The guidelines provide greater clarity about the requirements of the law around sexual violence—as requested by institutions and students.

All colleges, and universities and K-12 schools receiving federal funds must comply with Title IX. Schools that violate the law and refuse to address the problems identified by OCR can lose federal funding or be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for further action.

Under federal law, sexual violence refers to physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person's will or where a person is incapable of giving consent -- including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse and sexual coercion.

OCR's mission is to ensure equal access to education and promote educational excellence throughout the nation through the vigorous enforcement of civil rights. OCR is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination by educational institutions on the basis of disability, race, color, national origin, sex, and age, as well as the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act of 2001. Additional information about the office is available at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html.

This list reflects investigations open as of May 1, 2014. Schools are listed alphabetically by state.

State	Institution
AZ	Arizona State University
CA	Butte-Glen Community College District
CA	Occidental College
CA	University of California-Berkeley
CA	University of Southern California
CO	Regis University
CO	University of Colorado at Boulder
CO	University of Colorado at Denver
CO	University of Denver
CT	University of Connecticut
DC	Catholic University of America
FL	Florida State University
GA	Emory University
HI	University of Hawaii at Manoa
ID	University of Idaho
IL	Knox College
IL	University of Chicago
IN	Indiana University-Bloomington
IN	Vincennes University
MA	Amherst College
MA	Boston University
MA	Emerson College
MA	Harvard College
MA	Harvard University—Law School
MA	University of Massachusetts-Amherst
MD	Frostburg State University
MI	Michigan State University
MI	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
NC	Guilford College
NC	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
ND	Minot State University
NH	Dartmouth College
NJ	Princeton University
NY	Cuny Hunter College
NY	Hobart and William Smith Colleges
NY	Sarah Lawrence College
NY	Suny at Binghamton
OH	Denison University
OH	Ohio State University
OH	Wittenberg University
OK	Oklahoma State University
PA	Carnegie Mellon University
PA	Franklin and Marshall College
PA	Pennsylvania State University
PA	Swarthmore College
PA	Temple University
TN	Vanderbilt University
TX	Southern Methodist University
TX	The University of Texas-Pan American
VA	College of William and Mary
VA	University of Virginia
WA	Washington State University
WI	University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
WV	Bethany College
WV	West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine