BHEF Tapped by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to Solidify Maryland's Role as the Nation's Cyber Workforce Hub

Washington -- The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) has received a $400,000 multi-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to partner with the University System of Maryland (USM) to expand and scale opportunities for Maryland students in the growing field of cybersecurity. This project, which will build upon a groundbreaking new program initiated last June by the Northrop Grumman Corporation and University of Maryland College Park, will create new learning experiences for students, particularly women and underrepresented minorities, at four Maryland universities: Bowie State University, Towson University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and University of Maryland College Park.

Maryland is home to several top federal agencies and private sector firms, including NASA, NSA, and the U.S. Navy, and in 2010, Governor O'Malley designated cyber as the state's lead workforce focus. BHEF's member-led workforce project in cybersecurity directly addresses this need, and this infusion of resources and confidence by one of the nation's prominent foundations will help scale the project throughout the University of Maryland System. BHEF member Northrop Grumman and the University of Maryland College Park partnered in the creation of the Advanced Cybersecurity Experiences for Students (ACES) program, the nation's first undergraduate residential honors program in cybersecurity, which will launch in the fall 2013. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which provided planning support to BHEF to develop that program, is now supporting BHEF to develop a USM Undergraduate Cybersecurity Network to connect, leverage, and align the USM's undergraduate cybersecurity programs and engage industry and government in the creation of new learning experiences for students in cybersecurity.

This project is one of a dozen launched by BHEF to engage its industry and university members in new kinds of regional partnerships to increase student persistence in key fields important to national competitiveness, such as cybersecurity, large-data analytics, and sustainability, and align undergraduate education to regional workforce needs. These projects build upon a base of evidence BHEF has developed that provides insights into regional workforce needs, migration patterns of students in undergraduate STEM fields, and leverage points for high-impact interventions to increase student persistence toward completing STEM degrees. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant will support BHEF's efforts to integrate this evidence base into a regional strategy to bring undergraduate cybersecurity to scale in the University System of Maryland.

"Northrop Grumman applauds the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for its investment in this groundbreaking cybersecurity program with the University System of Maryland," said Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman chairman, CEO, and president. "We are fully committed to programs that ensure college graduates are ready to join the STEM workforce, and it is through highly collaborative industry-higher education partnerships such as the ACES Program that this objective will be achieved."

Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, added: "The University System of Maryland is most appreciative of this support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. We are especially pleased that it will allow the ACES program to expand beyond our flagship campus to three other campuses in the system. We anticipate substantial advances in our ability to address the significant cybersecurity workforce needs in the state and the nation."

Brian Fitzgerald, CEO of BHEF, concluded: "BHEF is grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for its support to scale the ACES Program. Our members have successfully collaborated to infuse innovation into the traditional higher education-corporate partnership model, and the result is taking root, with scalable, regional workforce projects from California to Massachusetts that focus on our nation's highest demand fields, such as cyber. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's recognition of this new formula is indicative of their unwavering commitment to and optimism for the future of the American workforce and economy."