LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas at Lawrence has landed a $22 million Federal investment to develop a national security research center there.
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran made the announcement during an introduction for FBI Director Christopher Ray, who was in Lawrence Thursday as the keynote speaker at a national cyber security conference on the KU campus.
KU officials told the Lawrence Journal World the funding is a foundational step in making KU a national leader in keeping and attracting researchers and companies that want to work in the growing realm of national security, including everything from cybersecurity to radar technology and artificial intelligence.
Existing national security research centers focus within certain areas of specialty. One such center, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, boasts one of the largest scientific and technical libraries in the federal government, with collections that number in the tens of millions. It also houses unclassified collections, including photos, related to the people events and scientific achievements that make up the nation’s nuclear history.
The 80,000 square foot “Kansas National Security Innovation Center” in Lawrence will be constructed in KU’s Innovation Park on the university’s West Campus and is slated to open early in 2026.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
