CIA returns to school to collaborate on spy technology research

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this CIA is increasing its access to the academy to assist in the development of new spy technology. CIA LaboratoriesA first-of-its-kind federal laboratory designed to compete with Russia’s successful plans and Chinese To assign academics and scientists to American universities.

CIA Laboratories Deputy director John Lewis said the project has been under construction for several years and is in response to a series of challenges the spy agency is facing, from stolen intellectual property to hiring and retention issues.

“The biggest awareness was that we were not active participants in the US research ecosystem,” he said. lewis said. “We were kind of going back to the same usual suspects for the contract, and they really weren’t the best place. In many tech areas, if you’re not interested in academia, you’re really missing out on the exploration aspect and the chance to move things forward.”

The decision to join the community of more than 300 government-run federal laboratories began in 2018. CIA Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director of science and technology, tasked several officers with brainstorming a mechanism for future technological innovations and devised a plan. CIA Laboratories.

this CIA He had many one-to-one relationships with the academy, starting with a project and ending with a project. But the agency wanted something more permanent, and that went beyond giving grants to professors and contracts to businesses.

Mr. lewisHis service as a government scientist dates back to the 1980s, where he helped found the laboratory. Since September 2020, her The small team conducts multidisciplinary research in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum computing.

The lab is busy at work. Mr. lewis said CIA Laboratories has several patents and is progressing with a pilot program on energy technologies. he is declined to specify the specific partners or the number of officers working in the laboratories, but her the team brings officers across her throughout the agency and the intelligence community.

“It’s not a secret CIA takes care of batteries. “When you develop this technology and turn it into development programs, that’s what we can do next, and that’s a different direction.” lewis said. “And this is not where we want the academy; We want the academy to explore, develop and bring technology to this transitional stage.”

According to Arthur Herman, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, manufacturing is the innovation phase that government is least equipped to do well.

Mr. Herman, author of Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, said the mobilization model of the last century remains a major paradigm for understanding these new efforts to balance the roles of government and business in critical technology research. development.

“Entrepreneurship, innovation – government can play a key role, but then efficiency, it’s really hard for government to play a major role here,” Mr. Herman said. “And what you often see is that government has a responsibility to consider leaving it up to the private sector to figure out what the best way to produce what you need and want here is.”

The US government is again turning to the private sector for help with research and development. not only this CIA. David Spirk, Department of Defense data officer, said Earlier this year, journalists said the American government must have fruitful relationships with academia and business to win its competition. Chinese.

while Mr. lewis was helping to build CIA LaboratoriesThe Department of Defense’s R&D arm spearheaded a pilot program designed to transfer technical research to the private sector. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created an initiative to provide its researchers with funding and connections to investors and companies.

DARPA last year partner with CIA– contract venture fund In-Q-Tel moves faster in its race against foreign investors. Kacy Gerst, DARPA’s chief of commercial strategy, said some of the people involved in his agency’s program initially only received foreign investment offers before his team was involved, meaning that these researchers’ first, best chance of survival came from foreign investors promising large sums of money.

Chinese uses a playbook based on forcing its commercial sector and taking the intellectual property of foreigners. The military-civilian cohesion policies of the communist government are forcing cooperation between the Chinese-based academic and institutional institutions and the regime.

According to the FBI’s website, the Chinese Communist Party also runs hundreds of talent schemes that encourage Americans to steal technological information to further the communist country’s goals. Labs are specific targets and the FBI said Chinese has successfully recruited talent program participants from around the world to work in programs involving wind tunnel design, advanced lasers, military technologies and nuclear energy.

CIA Laboratories Having developed a new incentive structure for agency officers, Mr. lewis said he is The prospects will help retain employees and provide a benefit to taxpayers. Officers will be able to obtain patents for the intellectual property they create. CIA and have the opportunity to profit from those patents later, instead of watching the private sector benefit from their inventions.

In addition to competing for talent with the private sector and potential competitors, CIA Laboratories faces other challenges. this CIA It wants to find its footing in a crowded field with hundreds of other federal labs and several federal agencies, which will likely raise concerns as to whether it is. CIA Laboratories is to copy the work of others and add another layer of bureaucracy.

Such repetition isn’t necessarily bad for those trying to spark innovation, Mr. Herman said.

“Repetitive effort, even more effort … can’t be a bad thing,” said Mr. Herman. “If Lockheed Martin had another company developing the equivalent of the Joint Strike Fighter using stealth technologies, maybe the cost would have been less, right? Maybe it would open a little earlier.”

fresh eyes CIA Laboratories can notice things others cannot see, including ideas and abilities. Mr. lewis continued said CIA Laboratories The project involving the batteries stemmed from a paper published six or seven years ago that was relatively untouched by researchers.

CIA Laboratories will also play a role in the agency’s recruitment process, he is He said he hired scientists and engineers from every discipline imaginable.



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