START recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate to support a partnership with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Together, both START and OUHSC will conduct the project "Mental Models of Intelligence Collectors and Analysts for Characterizing Adversarial Threats" to examine effective counterterrorism strategies.
"This grant brings great opportunity," LaFree said. "This new partnership expands our relationships with other educational institutions and allows us to add to our growing knowledge about the threat of violent extremism in the United States."
The project combines rigorous scientific investigation with real world experience to explain effective counterterrorism strategies that prevent attacks by identifying argumentative motivations, intentions and capabilities.
James Regens is the principal investigator for this partnering project. Regens holds the Edward E. and Helen T. Bartlett Foundation Chair and is the Presidential Professor of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is also the founding director of the OUHSC Center for Biosecurity Research (CBR) and associate Dean for research (COPH). Regens has held positions in government, national laboratories and research universities with expertise in modeling/simulation, risk assessment and decision analysis applied to counterterrorism and counterproliferation. He has authored more than 200 publications and has been the principal investigator for more than $35 million in research funding, primarily from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.