The University of Washington announces that Harvard Professor Christina Ciocca Eller and Vice Admiral (ret) Bob Sharp have been appointed co-chairs of the newly established advisory board for the Safeguarding the Entire Community of the U.S. Research Ecosystem (SECURE) Center.

Announced in July 2024 with a $50 million investment from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the SECURE Center aims to connect and empower the U.S. research community in addressing critical issues related to research security and integrity. The national SECURE Center at UW, led by Professor Mark Haselkorn from the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, will collaborate with experts from a dozen partner organizations and five regional centers to support the national research community ecosystem.

Advisory board co-chairs

Dr. Christina Ciocca Eller is an assistant professor of sociology and social studies at Harvard University. She previously served as Assistant Director of Evidence and Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Biden-Harris Administration. In that role, she co-chaired the Research Security Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council. A scholar of institutions, organizations, and social inequality, her research employs multiple methods and substantively centers on the U.S. higher education sector.

Credit: Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard University

Bob Sharp served as a Naval Intelligence Officer for over 34 years, and as a leader within the Navy’s Information Warfare Community since its inception. He served as the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), one of our nation’s premier intelligence agencies and has decades of leadership experience in the Intelligence, Defense, and National Security arenas. He is currently doing a combination of consulting, advisory and fellowship work, including serving as a research fellow for the University of Missouri St Louis.

Empowering the research community

Ciocca Eller and Sharp are working with SECURE Center leadership to assemble a diverse group of leaders with experience and professional connections that will help best inform the research community’s decisions and daily operations. Board members will bring expertise in government research, security operations, civil liberties, the U.S. higher education ecosystem, and other relevant fields, providing comprehensive guidance on safeguarding research and operating a large, geographically dispersed, networked operation. This inclusive consultation process will ensure broad participation from researchers, practitioners, and other experts, providing essential insights for advising the SECURE community on research security tools, analysis, and community engagement. 

The SECURE Center will help balance protection with collaboration, and broader initiatives with the needs of individual researchers. The Center will work with the research community on the co-design of shared tools, processes, and information resources that will seamlessly integrate into the research community's workflows. By implementing, delivering, using, evaluating, and refining these capabilities within their work environments, the SECURE Center aims to support the community in seeing their vision realized in tangible forms.

Shared governance

As mandated by the “Chips and Science Act of 2022,” the strategic governance of the SECURE Center includes the Center Director, Board of Advisors, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Government Steering Committee.

Under the same initiative, the NSF awarded a companion grant of $17 million to Texas A&M University to launch the SECURE Analytics program. Dr. Kevin Gamache from Texas A&M University will lead this initiative with an advisory board chaired by Dr. Condoleezza Rice, director of the Hoover Institution and the 66th United States Secretary of State.

Security extends beyond technology to encompass a community of people working within a complex socio-technical system. The SECURE Center and SECURE Analytics will empower the research community to protect the immense value of their work while simultaneously supporting the collaboration that is a foundation of how they produce that value.

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Announcing the Safeguarding the Entire Community of the U.S. Research Ecosystem (SECURE) Center.