Since its creation NSHEAB has brought university and FBI officials together to discuss weapons of mass destruction, bioterrorism, threats to university research facilities, and "the promotion of strategic national security partnerships with academia [in] the United States."[2] NSHEAB has also been a forum within which Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has encouraged universities to engage in "high-risk/high-payoff" research intended to "provide the United States with an overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries."[3]
The National Security Higher Education Advisory Board is a part of "IARPA's mission to invest in high-risk/high-payoff research programs that have the potential to provide the United States with an overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries."
– FBI National Press Release, 2009[4]
A stated goal of NSHEAB is to prevent the theft of sensitive research conducted at American universities.[5] Some other topics discussed at NSHEAB meetings have included cyber security, campus shootings, and export regulations,[6] as well as domestic terrorism.[7]
NSHEAB meets approximately three times yearly. Some meetings have included briefings by invited speakers from other federal agencies, such as the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive,[8] U.S. Customs and Border Protection,[9] the United States Coast Guard,[10] the Central Intelligence Agency,[11] the Department of Commerce,[12] and the Department of Defense.[13]
NSHEAB is currently chaired by Lou Anna K. Simon, president of Michigan State University. Notable members of NSHEAB include or have included former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, MIT president Susan Hockfield,[14] Vanderbilt University chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos,[15] and U.C. Davis chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.[16]