Mitre to keep operating NIST’s National Cybersecurity Federally Funded R&D Center

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has renewed the Mitre Corporation’s contract to operate the National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) in Rockville, Maryland, according to a news release.

Mitre is a not-for-profit, with headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts and McLean, Virginia, which manages six FFRDCs and works to advance the public interest through systems engineerging. Founded in 1958 as an offshoot of an MIT-based military think tank, the corporation has operated the National Cybersecurity FFRDC, or NCF, since 2014.

The fresh five-year contract will see it manage the facility through 2029, to develop “targeted solutions that support NIST’s mission to accelerate the adoption of secure technologies, including those outlined in the NIST Special Publication 1800 series and other outputs.”

“As NIST’s strategic ally and operator of the NCF, we look forward to deepening this collaboration and providing innovative cybersecurity and privacy tools that will benefit government, academia and industry,” says Mark Peters, president and CEO of Mitre.

Yosry Barsoum, Mitre’s vice president and director of the Center for Securing the Homeland, notes “the ongoing national need for a cybersecurity-focused FFRDC” – of which the NCF is the only one. Its status as such gives it a degree of neutrality and makes it “well-positioned to help with coordination and integration among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies, as well as private sector and non-governmental organizations,” in its mission to address emerging cybersecurity threats while advancing concepts like zero trust architectures and digital identity protection.

In March, Mitre opened a new AI Assurance and Discovery Lab at its McLean headquarters.

NIST, meanwhile, is founding a Standardization Center of Excellence to be led by ASTM International, for which it has allocated $15 million. The Center will work on standards for critical and emerging technologies considered essential to U.S. competitiveness and national security.

Article Topics

cybersecurity  |  Mitre Corp.  |  NIST  |  research and development