The University of West Florida has secured a $32.5 million grant from Triumph Gulf Coast to fund a decade-long expansion of its cybersecurity and computational research programs, a move officials say will position Northwest Florida as a hub for high-tech innovation.
Triumph Gulf Coast, the nonprofit entity tasked with distributing settlement money from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, approved the award Wednesday. The money will support UWF’s “Research for Tomorrow” plan, which carries a total cost of more than $130 million over 10 years. UWF will contribute about 75 percent of that funding.
“This grant marks a pivotal step forward for UWF and our region,” UWF Provost Jaromy Kuhl said in a press release. “By expanding our capacity in cybersecurity and computational intelligence research, we are positioning Northwest Florida as a national leader in innovation. The work being done here will not only advance discovery and technology but will also strengthen our economy.”
The plan builds on UWF’s existing strengths. The Center for Cybersecurity, founded in 2014, has been recognized nationally as a training hub. The Institute for Analytics and Industry Advancement, known as (IA)², will be expanded. A new Center for Computational Intelligence will bring together faculty and students focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and related fields.
RELATED: Pensacola State College awarded $3.25M Triumph grant for new workforce training center
Facilities are central to the plan. Triumph funds will help expand UWF’s new science and engineering building and renovate laboratory space in the Sciences Annex.
“UWF’s expanded research capacity will position the University and the region as a computational research and commercialization hub, attracting new federal, state, and industry grant funding that would not otherwise come to Northwest Florida,” Triumph staff wrote in their evaluation.
The project is expected to create 101 net new jobs over the 10-year period. Those positions include research scientists, software engineers, data analysts and post-doctoral associates, with salaries for senior research faculty projected around $200,000. On a simple per-job basis, the Triumph award works out to more than $320,000 per position — a figure that is considerably higher than most past Triumph grants.
But staff said the payoff would come not only in direct jobs, but in the research dollars, intellectual property and spin-off companies they expect the centers to generate.
"The initiative is expected to generate substantial ongoing increases in regional personal income," staff wrote, "with an ROI of approximately $12.8 dollars in added personal income per dollar of Triumph.”
The university also emphasized partnerships. Collaborations with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a Pensacola-based research institute with international ties, and with Farcast Biosciences, a biotechnology company, are already underway. The application argued that Northwest Florida’s large military footprint strengthens the case.
RELATED: UWF Center for Cybersecurity awarded $1.3 million to expand career training
“Santa Rosa and Escambia County, and the entire Northwest Florida community, are perfectly positioned to incorporate existing military, Department of Defense, and other federal assets to expand, diversify, and transform the region by attracting new federal spending,” the university wrote in their project application.
Triumph staff rated the proposal an “A” — the board’s highest score — and called it “transformational.” They noted the university’s track record of winning competitive grants and argued that new facilities, equipment and personnel would allow UWF to compete for a broader array of research dollars.
The project will roll out in stages. In the first year, UWF will build out new laboratory space, expand the Center for Cybersecurity’s footprint on campus and begin hiring faculty and staff. Additional hires and grant activity are expected to ramp up through the decade, with Triumph funding tapering off as outside contracts and university support take over.
