The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced Tuesday a $40M funding opportunity for an institution to lead a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE) for Homeland Security Quantitative Analysis.

In addition, DHS S&T is searching for potential partners to work with the lead institution in support of the Center’s activities.

According to DHS, the main aim of the Center will be to develop the next generation of mathematical, computational and statistical theories (including algorithms, methods, and tools) to advance quantitative analysis capabilities of the homeland security enterprise.

“DHS is soliciting proposals from multi-disciplinary research teams that have research experience and concentration in quantitative analysis, operations research and systems analysis, homeland security risk science and economics. The research teams will work closely with DHS and other subject matter experts to develop successful innovations to confront the future challenges DHS faces. The teams will need to cover a variety of academic disciplines including engineering, science and mathematics.”

These two related funding opportunities are open to receive proposals from accredited U.S. colleges and universities, said DHS.

The deadline for submitting proposals is November 1, 2016.  DHS intends to fund this new COE for 10 years for a total of approximately $40 million through a “cooperative agreement.”