{"id":13043,"date":"2025-11-03T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=13043"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:25:33","slug":"uw-fostering-closer-research-ties-with-federal-defense-cybersecurity-agencies","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-fostering-closer-research-ties-with-federal-defense-cybersecurity-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"UW fostering closer research ties with federal defense, cybersecurity agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>
In 2024, campus welcomed a delegation from the United States Cyber Command, which is responsible for the Department of Defense\u2019s cyberspace capabilities. UW\u2013Madison Physics professor Mark Eriksson (right) speaks with Lt. Gen. William J. Hartman, deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command, during the delegation\u2019s visit to multiple research labs across campus. Photo: Althea Dotzour \/ UW\u2013Madison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Traumatic brain injuries can be debilitating and sometimes culminate in permanent disability. While many people who experience a TBI are simply the victims of an unlucky accident, certain careers carry an outsize risk for brain injuries.<\/p>\n

Many of these risky jobs are in the military, and that\u2019s why the United States Department of Defense has invested millions of dollars into university-based research aimed at preventing, detecting and treating TBIs. Much of that work is performed by an interdisciplinary group of engineers and scientists involved in\u00a0PANTHER<\/a>. The multi-institution collaboration led out of the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison College of Engineering is developing better methods for diagnosing TBIs, as well as advanced materials that promise to make military helmets better at preventing injury. These advanced materials are also improving helmets used by others, from law enforcement to athletes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this kind of \u201cdual-use\u201d research, meaning research that benefits both the Department of Defense and civilians, that UW\u2013Madison leaders are hoping to attract more of in the coming years. The push is part of a broader strategic effort led by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to increase DoD research funding and expand the university\u2019s national security-oriented research and education opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about research portfolio diversification and making sure that UW\u2013Madison is not overly reliant on one or two primary funding streams when there are many national security priorities that fit with the research we excel at,\u201d says Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Brzezi\u0144ska.<\/p>\n

The defense department\u2019s research interests are broad \u2014 from cybersecurity and quantum computing to food security and disease detection and treatment. Brzezi\u0144ska is confident that UW\u2019s similarly broad research portfolio is well positioned to attract new investment from the agency, even in areas where a connection to military applications may not be obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people don\u2019t realize that DoD research is not about developing weapons only,\u201d says Brzezi\u0144ska. \u201cThere are many things that we take for granted that actually came out of dual-use research sponsored by DoD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brzezi\u0144ska would know. Her own research career has focused in large part on enabling and developing scientific and civilian applications of GPS, a technology that has fundamentally changed civilians\u2019 relationship with navigation and originated in DoD-sponsored research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think many UW\u2013Madison researchers are interested in contributing their ideas to addressing national security challenges that would also result in advancing civilian technologies and generating economic benefit for the state and the nation,\u201d says Brzezi\u0144ska.<\/p>\n

A strategic pivot to building better relationships<\/h3>\n

Defense-oriented research has long been an important source of federal funding at UW, even while other agencies like the National Institutes of Health have traditionally sponsored more campus research projects.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new is a nascent campuswide effort to build on existing relationships and develop closer ties between UW researchers and decisionmakers at DoD, defense-related industries, and other government partners focused on national security, like\u00a0Sandia National Laboratories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The strategic pivot is coordinated by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Office of University Relations, which includes the university\u2019s federal relations and business engagement arms. While Brzezi\u0144ska has her own decades-long relationships with DoD, the two offices\u00a0recently hired Dave Schroeder<\/a>\u00a0to be the university\u2019s inaugural Director of National Security Initiatives, tasked with identifying national security research opportunities and building strategic defense-oriented partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopment of UW\u2013Madison\u2019s relationship with the Department of Defense will provide additional research opportunities to examine real-world issues, in addition to leveraging the industry strengths and workforce opportunities within the state of Wisconsin,\u201d says Vice Chancellor for University Relations Craig Thompson. \u201cThe strategic growth of UW\u2013Madison\u2019s DoD portfolio will strengthen our standing as a world-class university that trains tomorrow\u2019s leaders and solves today\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schroeder\u2019s role is in some ways an expansion of a position he previously held in the College of Letters & Science, where he was charged with creating opportunities for UW\u2013Madison faculty, staff and students in L&S and beyond with defense and intelligence agencies. This included identifying research funding opportunities but also focused on building the types of relationships with government and industry officials that could eventually result in new partnerships that benefit faculty and students.<\/p>\n

A recent example of this work was the\u00a0November 2024 visit by a delegation from U.S. Cyber Command<\/a>\u00a0that included Lt. Gen. William \u201cJoe\u201d Hartman, now the acting head of both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. The delegation toured labs and met with researchers in the Department of Physics, College of Engineering and School of Computer Data and Information Sciences. The visit provided a platform for agency officials to hear directly from faculty and students about their work in important cybersecurity areas like quantum computing and cryptography, and resulted in an\u00a0expansion of university partnerships on cybersecurity<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s providing new opportunities for researchers and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoD and other national security agencies are very relationship-based, but once built, those relationships are long-lasting,\u201d says Schroeder. \u201cUW\u2013Madison has a lot to contribute to the emerging challenges across the national security landscape, from cyber to advanced materials to agriculture, and of course the impact of AI across all of these domains. When you discover innovative solutions to these mission-focused problems, those agencies want to sustain the partnership with you, and everyone benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broad campus support<\/h3>\n

Campus leaders at the school and college level are enthusiastic about expanding defense-related research programs.<\/p>\n

College of Engineering Dean Devesh Ranjan touted the college\u2019s long history of partnering with the DoD on research \u201cthat safeguards our nation while advancing technologies that benefit society far beyond the defense sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to the college\u2019s close collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory through initiatives like the University Center of Excellence on Efficient and Robust Machine Learning and joint work on quantum science.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see tremendous opportunity to expand these partnerships and to lead in shaping technologies critical to our country\u2019s security and prosperity,\u201d Ranjan says.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) is eyeing new opportunities to collaborate with the defense and veterans affairs departments. The school already has several large DoD-funded projects that could result in improved outcomes for prostate cancer patients and people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, lupus and severe limb injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the conditions needed for success with DoD funding opportunities are present at our school,\u201d says Nita Ahuja, Dean of UWSMPH. \u201cWe have research teams with deep expertise in areas prioritized by the DoD, a track record of successfully funded projects and proven ability to collaborate across disciplines and deliver results.\u201d<\/p>\n

The College of Letters & Science has been strengthening its relationship with the department for years, according to Dean Eric M. Wilcots, noting that it operates differently than other funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need time to establish a relationship, but once they trust you, you are in for the long run,\u201d Wilcots says, pointing to multiple large awards received by L&S faculty in recent years, including for quantum work, creating mental health programs for troops and various cybersecurity plans.<\/p>\n

Now is precisely the right time to capitalize on these existing programs and relationships, says Brzezi\u0144ska, especially as other universities move to expand their own defense-oriented programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not intentional and strategic, we could miss the bus,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

While securing more research funding is an initial goal, there are other downstream benefits for students, DoD and industry, Brzezi\u0144ska says, beginning with workforce preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cUW\u2013Madison could be in a unique position to provide workforce to DoD. If we could bring more research here and engage with the DoD research done by graduate and undergraduate students, we could become one of the national hubs for workforce development in STEM domains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Will Cushman<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/uw-fostering-closer-research-ties-with-federal-defense-cybersecurity-agencies\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traumatic brain injuries can be debilitating and sometimes culminate in permanent disability. While many people who experience a TBI are simply the victims of an unlucky accident, certain careers carry an outsize risk for brain injuries. Many of these risky jobs are in the military, and that\u2019s why the United States Department of Defense has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":13045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-13043","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/13043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=13043"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=13043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}