Center of Excellence (COE) Center for Explosives Research (CER) Center Lead | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Office of University Programs (OUP), offered a competitive funding opportunity for a U.S. college or university to serve as the lead institution for a university-based Center of Excellence (COE) called the Center for Explosives Research (CER). The selected lead institution would be responsible for building and managing a multi-university center that combines rigorous explosives-related research with education and clear pathways for transitioning results into real-world homeland security use. This is a cooperative agreement, meaning DHS anticipates active involvement and coordination with the awardee rather than a purely hands-off grant.

At its core, the CER is meant to strengthen the nation’s ability to prepare for, characterize, and detect threat materials connected to terrorist attacks involving explosives, with a particular emphasis on relevance to security screening and protection of mass transit modes and venues. DHS expects the center to push the field forward by producing original, cutting-edge results in explosives science and engineering, while also adapting proven ideas in ways that materially improve detection sensors, sensor systems, and the algorithms that interpret sensor outputs. A key point is that the research should not stay in an academic silo; the knowledge and prototypes coming out of the center are expected to be compatible with broader screening architectures, including multi-sensor systems and advanced analytic methods used by technology developers and operational customers.

The lead institution’s application was expected to be comprehensive. Rather than proposing a single project, the lead applicant needed to submit an integrated center plan that included: (1) a portfolio of research projects from the lead university and its proposed partner institutions, (2) a management structure for running a distributed, multi-disciplinary center, (3) an education and workforce development plan aimed at both enrolled students and mid-career professionals, and (4) a technology transition strategy showing how discoveries and prototypes would move from research into government or private-sector implementation. DHS also ran a separate companion solicitation for universities to submit single-project proposals as potential CER partners; DHS reserved the right to add partner institutions to the final center from either the lead competition or the partner competition, as long as proposals passed merit review and met DHS mission relevance.

Research under the CER was expected to be strongly grounded in the fundamental disciplines that can unlock next-generation explosives detection and characterization, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, and multiple engineering fields. DHS signaled that competitive centers would assemble genuinely interdisciplinary teams capable of developing new detection approaches or enabling technologies, and ideally would be able to design, develop, and demonstrate new sensor system concepts. The overall research program needed to be coherent and achievable with the available personnel and resources, and successful proposals had to address all major research focus or theme areas identified in the full announcement (even if not every subtopic within each theme was covered). Another practical requirement was that applicants explain how the work would be performed in an unclassified academic environment, including what specialized laboratory or testing facilities would be needed to conduct explosives-related research safely and responsibly.

Because some explosives research can involve elevated safety and security concerns, the FOA placed special emphasis on governance and risk management. Successful applicants would be required to convene an external panel of subject matter experts specifically to review planned Homemade Explosives (HME) research activities proposed at academic partner sites and to advise the center lead on what level of work with actual HME mixtures or compounds would be appropriate. In addition, applicants had to demonstrate a comprehensive researcher safety program that met or exceeded OUP requirements, underscoring that strong safety culture and enforceable procedures were not optional but central to eligibility and continued performance.

The CER was also designed to operate as part of the broader DHS S&T University Network, a consortium of COEs intended to share resources and data and to collaborate to deliver cost-effective, mission-critical results. Applicants were expected to plan for integration with other COEs where it made sense and to establish methods to ensure CER work leveraged and complemented existing efforts rather than duplicating research or data collection already underway elsewhere in the network. In practice, this means the center lead would need to show it can coordinate across institutions, align research with DHS priorities, and contribute to a larger ecosystem of homeland security innovation.

In terms of basic award facts, this opportunity was posted under Funding Opportunity Number DHS-13-ST-061-COE-001A, titled “Center of Excellence (COE) - Center for Explosives Research (CER) - Center Lead.” It fell under CFDA 97.061 (Centers for Homeland Security), used a cooperative agreement funding instrument, and was categorized as science and technology research and development. DHS anticipated making up to two awards, with an award ceiling listed as $3,500,000 and no cost sharing or matching requirement. Eligibility was limited to U.S. public/state-controlled and private institutions of higher education. The original and current closing date listed was November 27, 2012, with posting on August 27, 2012 and an archive date of December 27, 2012. The administering office was DHS Office of Procurement Operations, Grants Division, and the point of contact listed in the notice was Jacqueline Greely, Grants Technician, at 202-447-0724.

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