§188 Conduct of Research, Development, Demonstration, Testing and Evaluation

Summary

The Secretary, through the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, must run homeland security research both inside the Department and by funding outside groups. Outside programs must include colleges, universities, private research institutes, and companies from many parts of the country. The research must meet high quality standards using merit review under section 182(14). Money can be given as grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts. The Secretary must name one or more university-based homeland security centers to build a coordinated university system that strengthens homeland security. Centers should show expertise in areas like first responder training, weapons-of-mass-destruction and biological response, emergency medical services, chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear detection and countermeasures, animal and plant health, food and water safety, port and transport security, information security, engineering, outreach, border issues, and policy and information sharing. The Secretary may waive some criteria or add others if needed, but must publish any changes and the reasons in the Federal Register the day a center is chosen. The Secretary must report to Congress every year which centers were designated, how they help security, and any changes to those designations. Money is authorized as needed. The Department may use any federal laboratory and may set up a headquarters laboratory and other lab units. If a headquarters lab is chosen, the Secretary must make selection rules with the National Academy of Sciences and others, publish the rules, evaluate candidates, pick one, and tell Congress which lab was chosen, how it meets the rules, and what it will do. The lab cannot start as headquarters until at least 30 days after that report. Definitions: “country of concern” = a covered nation under 10 U.S.C. 4872(d) or a country the Secretary finds harmful to U.S. security; “nonprofit organization,” “small business firm,” and “subject invention” follow 35 U.S.C. 201; “manufactured substantially in the United States” = a domestic end product per FAR 25.003. In individual cases, the Secretary may waive certain patent/license rules under 35 U.S.C. 204 if a small business, nonprofit, or assignee shows it tried but could not find U.S. licensees or U.S. manufacture is not feasible. Before granting a waiver, the Secretary must follow the Build America, Buy America procedures in section 70923(b)(2), and may not grant a waiver if it would make the products be made in a country of concern.