NATIONAL SECURITY R&DMeeting Surging Demand for National Security Research

Published 26 October 2022

Sandia National Laboratory is embarking on a major expansion of its network of academic partners to meet the surging demand for national security science and engineering. From 2015 to 2021, the Labs’ budget increased more than 50%, from $2.9 billion to $4.5 billion. Over the same period, the Labs increased its workforce by more than 25%, from 11,700 to 15,000. Still, the Lab says that it won’t meet its obligations just by hiring staff.

The nation’s largest national laboratory is embarking on a major expansion of its network of academic partners to meet the surging demand for national security science and engineering.

This year, Sandia National Laboratoriesinked memoranda of understanding with Texas A&M University; the University of California, Berkeley; North Carolina State University and the University of Texas at El Paso. It is finalizing agreements with Arizona State University and the University of Washington. When those are signed, Sandia will have formal ties with 27 universities, including 13 minority serving institutions.

Work at Sandia, which is performed almost entirely for federal agencies, has been rising steadily. From fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2021, the Labs’ budget increased more than 50%, from $2.9 billion to $4.5 billion. Over the same period, the Labs increased its workforce by more than 25%, from 11,700 to 15,000.

But Sandia won’t meet its obligations just by hiring staff.

“Partnering with universities keeps Sandia science at the state of the art and enables us to do more research for our national security mission than we can on our sites alone,” said Diane Peebles, Sandia’s senior manager of academic programs.

The partnerships take many forms. Research collaborations can range from nuclear science and nonproliferation to climate change, quantum computing, cybersecurity, pandemic resiliency and biodefense.

Additionally, “A memorandum of understanding aligns the leadership at each institution to invest and deeply engage to help each other in numerous ways beyond just collaborative research,” said Ken Patel, Sandia’s campus partnership manager for Purdue University and UC Berkeley. “The MOU is more strategic and thinks long term rather than project specific. It helps to meld the institutional synergies and leverage the unique differences, so that we can become more effective partners.”

Patel said the agreements also streamline other activities — such as when Sandia staff teach university courses or when the laboratory arranges workspace for a visiting faculty — and simplify financial agreements.

Partnerships Strengthen Sandia’s National Security Mission
The new memoranda expand existing relationships Sandia uses to carry out its national security programs, ranging from research to recruiting and workforce development.