Given a relatively limited budget, the Science and Technology (S&T) branch of the Department of Homeland Security needs to better focus its resources on a smaller number of projects than it does currently so that it can help agencies move prototypes into testing and ultimately operations, according to the chief of the branch.
An intensive review of the approximately 200 projects that S&T has ongoing has resulted in a determination that “we’re going to do far fewer projects because we need to put more money on the back end,” Tara O’Toole, under secretary for Science and Technology at DHS, says last month at an event sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.
This delivery of products to the field faster, whether the products are technology or knowledge-based, is the “most important priority,” she says.
O’Toole says that in the past eight years a problem has been that once S&T develops a prototype, “it doesn’t have a partner in the operational components who has set aside money, people to nurse those prototypes into operational testing, pay for training and then move them into the mainstream of their operations. At least for high level projects, S&T is going to have to pay for some of that or at least share the cost with the components.”
The idea to put more resources behind fewer projects is one of five goals O’Toole and her colleagues have established for S&T based on conversations with various stakeholders in DHS as well as Congress, she says.
While S&T has provided its DHS customers with a lot of tactical, but incremental improvements, it has very little to show in terms of fielded products, O’Toole says.
Within this focused resource goal is the creation of a new type of high-level, high-priority projects called APEX. There won’t be many APEX projects and they will be agreed to by O’Toole and a component chief, she said. Currently O’Toole has agreements on APEX projects with Secret Service Chief Mark Sullivan and Customs and Border Commissioner Alan Bersin.
To improve product delivery, O’Toole says that S&T has to better understand the operational needs of the DHS components, “which is not easy because they do not necessarily know what they are themselves,” adding that they typically don’t have a strong process for knowing their needs and translating them into requirements. To this end, she is trying to strengthen relationships with the components, including embedding science advisors in the various agencies, and improving how S&T does project management.
Creation of the goals is just one outcome of a nearly year-long review of S&T and its organization conducted by O’Toole since she was confirmed to lead the directorate last fall.
S&T Reorganization
Another outcome is reducing the number of direct reports to O’Toole, which will consist of four groups that subsume the activities of the current organization. One is the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), which now contains the divisions that currently made up a large portion of S&T, such as Explosives and Chemical and Biological. Cyber Security is being added as a new division, she says.
Future budget requests will be for HSARPA rather than broken down between the divisions, O’Toole says.
Another new group will lead efforts with first responders and state and local governments in order to focus on this set of customers which are different that the DHS operational components, she says.
A third office is devoted to assisting the operational components with acquisitions and operational analysis. This office will decide what projects get funded, O’Toole says.
The Office of Research and Development Partnerships, to be directed by Tom Cellucci, brings together the various DHS sponsored university centers of excellence, international programs, commercialization efforts and national laboratory programs to improve the leveraging of these relationships, O’Toole says. Cellucci currently heads S&T’s commercialization efforts.
O’Toole says that one of her surprises as she came aboard was the focus on “creation of new technologies” within the organization.
Developing technology is one role but not S&T’s only role, O’Toole says. “In fact, , given the scope of the DHS mission and the size of S&T’s budget, there is no way we can be in the business solely or even primarily of the R&D of innovative technologies,” she says. “It is simply not feasible.”
Technical Expertise as an Asset
S&T also provides a “core set of technical expertise” to DHS in the form of “assessment, analysis and advice,” O’Toole says. That means that S&T also delivers “knowledge products in the form of analysis and standards.”
O’Toole discussed S&T’s knowledge-based expertise earlier this year before a House panel, pointing out how first responders can benefit from standards such as how to better handle white powder incidents with little financial investments.
Focusing on first responders is second goal of S&T, she says. While a lot of products have been delivered to first responders, they usually can’t afford the life-cycle costs associated with these things, including the training.
A third goal is using S&T’s technical expertise to help with operational analyses, requirements generation and testing and evaluation through an analytical and systems engineering approach. This will be led by the group in charge of assisting components with acquisitions and operational analyses, O’Toole says.
Already S&T is working with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on a systems approach to aviation security, especially at the passenger checkpoints, that has been bolstered by the failed bombing attempt last Christmas aboard a passenger plane destined for the U.S. from Europe. O’Toole says that DHS is trying to find ways to better integrate inspection equipment, behavior detection and taking advantage of “low hanging fruit.”
S&T has been working with TSA and other groups “to figure out, ‘How does one do a living systems analysis of checkpoints to be expanded into aviation security generally?'” O’Toole says. “And it’s these kinds of assessments that we need to really guide a lot of our technology inserts.”
Other Goals
A fourth goal is getting technologies from industry that are one to three years away from being fielded and staying away from a lot of basic research.
“We want to be best in class at technology foraging,” O’Toole says. There will be some basic research and development but that will be the exception because S&T doesn’t have the time or resources for this to be a primary function, she says.
O’Toole understands that off-the-shelf technology doesn’t meet operational needs immediately and will require some investment.
For basic research S&T will rely more on its various university centers of excellence and invest in areas that are unique to DHS. O’Toole says she and others at S&T are currently developing a strategic plan to guide research and development within S&T.
A fifth goal is establishing an “ecosystem of innovation,” O’Toole says. S&T already has the knowledge and human capital for this. Now by putting the various functional divisions such as Explosives and Cyber Security within HSARPA, it helps “create a multidisciplinary flow of knowledge and expertise to et people out of stovepipes,” she says.
O’Toole says that S&T’s focus on fewer projects with more resources doesn’t mean less attention by her organization on small businesses. Small businesses already manage some large projects and there will continue to be small projects, she said. However, she says these won’t be science projects but must be able to transition to use in the field.