The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology branch has awarded task orders worth $42 million over the next five years to six university-led Centers of Excellence (COEs) that help the department’s components and agencies with homeland security-related research, development, analysis and services.DHS Logo DHS

The new award allows for DHS components to award task orders to the COE’s, which each have different focus areas.

The awardees and the potential value of their task orders are: the Univ. of Maryland-led Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism; $15 million; the Univ. of Alaska at Anchorage-led Arctic Domain Awareness, $6 million; the Stevens Institute of Technology-led Maritime Security Center, $6 million; the Rutgers Univ.-led Visualization and Data Analytics, $5 million; the Kansas State Univ.-led Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, $5 million; and the Jackson State Univ. (Miss.)-led Coastal Hazards Center, $5 million.

Task orders can be awarded between FY ’16 and FY 20 under the new award. DHS says in a Jan. 20 FedBizOpps notice announcing the awards that department components are increasingly interested in the work of the COEs.