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UND asks Legislature to fund SCIF and national-security research infrastructure
Summary
UND presented a 12-item capital priorities list to the committee that emphasizes a Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), a large counter-UAS project, satellite test beds, a digital twin partnership with the Space Development Agency and cyber/radar testbeds tied to Grand Forks military infrastructure.
Ryan Adams, dean of Engineering and Mines at the University of North Dakota, told the committee the university’s top capital priorities are driven by increasing space and national-security research demand in the Grand Forks region.
“A SCIF is a Secure Compartmented Information Facility. It allows us to process classified information and to work in classified settings, which as we enhance our work in space and national security, becomes a necessity,” President Armacost explained before Dean Adams described the operational need.
Adams said the university’s full request included roughly $36,000,000 across 12 components and that the top two items together amounted to about $17,500,000. He described the SCIF as an all-or-nothing item: “If we have less than this, we can’t…get a SCIF at this point.”
Dean Adams and Vice President Scott Snyder detailed additional priorities that UND said would support education and a regional national-security ecosystem: satellite test beds to speed satellite development and student experience; a digital-twin operations center tied to the Space Development Agency; radar and optics ISR capability; a cyber range and separate cybersecurity research infrastructure; and materials characterization work tied to hypersonics.
Snyder told the committee that counter-UAS received strong interest from federal partners and lawmakers in Washington: funding and private matching are possible, he said, and industry partners have approached UND to partner on test capabilities near Grand Forks Air Force Base and Grand Sky.
Committee members pressed UND on which items require full funding versus which can be phased. Adams replied that some items could be phased or built in stages but reiterated that a SCIF must meet certification standards to be usable. UND officials said certain federal and private matching funds already exist for particular items (for example, a Space Development Agency phase-1 award cited as roughly $500,000) and that the university seeks opportunistic partnerships when federal solicitations appear.
No formal appropriation was passed in the hearing; members discussed priorities and asked UND to consider phased approaches and provide clearer cost breakdowns for high-ticket items.
