University of Nebraska System President Ted Carter announced today that NU's National Strategic Research Institute has been awarded a new five-year, $92 million contract through the U.S. Strategic Command to continue its leading research in national security and defense.
This is the third contract awarded to NSRI since the system-wide institute was established in 2012 to perform exclusive research to meet the needs of USSTRATCOM and the Department of Defense. In 2018, NSRI's initial $84 million contract was renewed with a $92 million contract - a ceiling that faculty from across the campuses and NSRI scientists reached in just 18 months, paving the way for a subsequent renewal that will further expand the university's work in protecting the United States and its allies from those who would do harm.
In total, NSRI has received $298 million in research contract awards over the past eight years, with university faculty and NSRI researchers delivering on 110 contracts for national defense partners across the country.
"This is a monumental achievement for the world-leading faculty, staff and students of the University of Nebraska, the entire team at NSRI, and the people of our state," said Carter, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Navy who most recently served as superintendent of his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy. "It is one of our greatest points of pride to put the talents and resources of the University of Nebraska to work to support our women and men in uniform. This contract award is a vote of confidence in our university, and it signals the continued strength of our partnership with USSTRATCOM and the Department of Defense. Especially during these challenging times, I'm so inspired by our faculty, staff, students and NSRI colleagues who have consistently stepped up to keep our warfighters and our country safe."
Adm. Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said: "The efforts of the NSRI for national security are incalculable and that is once again validated by the awarding of a new five-year contract. As the sponsor of the NSRI, the United States Strategic Command and its 150,000 military and civilian force are proud of their accomplishments and we look forward to what they will offer this command and the nation in the future.
"Deterrence is a multi-domain effort and the outstanding faculty, staff and students at the University of Nebraska are consistently providing the tools necessary to keep our nation and our allies safe."
The University of Nebraska remains one of only 14 University Affiliated Research Centers in the country to have an exclusive research partnership with the Department of Defense and is the only one sponsored by a unified combatant command. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Penn State, Georgia Tech and Johns Hopkins University are among other elite institutions to have a UARC designation.
"Given the evolved mission of our sponsor, U.S. Strategic Command, we have made significant investments in nuclear weapons enterprise support and refined our path forward to ensure consistent deliverables to the command while remaining resolute in delivering across the threat spectrum," said Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Robert Hinson, NSRI founding executive director.
"As we've seen throughout the last several months with COVID-19, the threats never cease and they are never one-dimensional. It is exactly these times of compounding challenges that NSRI is designed to respond to — the scope of our expertise is broad because the threat spectrum is broad. Respond we have, and we will continue to do so in support of STRATCOM and the DoD."
