The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announces a first-of-its-kind partnership with the University of Virginia (UVA) to establish the National Security Data and Policy Institute (NSDPI) to advance the Intelligence Community’s (IC) use of emerging technologies to collect, analyze, and manage data, a crucial component of the IC’s foreign intelligence mission. The news was shared yesterday in a press release.
“This partnership with UVA is a terrific example of how the Intelligence Community can collaborate with academia to increase our understanding of critically important national security issues,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. “Today, not only is an astounding amount of open-source data available to the public, but various actors, including foreign adversaries, also have access to increasingly advanced analytic tools that rely on, among other things, artificial intelligence, to exploit such information in new ways that exacerbate existing threats such as cybersecurity challenges. Among many benefits, this partnership will help us better identify and leverage open-source data of most value to our national security mission and to produce insights through largely unclassified information. In doing so, we will be better positioned to transparently share our insights with a range of partners, including industry, for purposes of facilitating collaboration on critical national security matters while also engaging in a more sophisticated discussion through which we can learn and grow from our partners’ insights in industry and academia.”
“I’m grateful to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for their investment in UVA and their confidence in our research and leadership capabilities,” said University of Virginia President Jim Ryan. “It’s an honor to pursue our public service mission by capitalizing on academic strengths from across the University in addressing security and policy challenges that face our nation.”
As described in the 2023 National Intelligence Strategy, the increasingly complex, interconnected, and evolving global operating environment requires the IC to work with a broad set of partners to enhance our operational capabilities, enrich our data sources, and sharpen our insights.
