FSU Centers Contribute to SHIELD

In September 2025, the United States Department of War’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced a new national defense program: the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD). The 10-year initiative outlines a $151 billion ceiling for contract funding to be awarded to universities and contractors accepted into the program. 

In January 2026, Florida State University announced acceptance into the program, making it one of only 16 universities across the country. 

But what does SHIELD mean for the nation, for the region, for the people?

At the campus level, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Dean Suvranu De says the university’s SHIELD work will call on its three Tallahassee research centers—High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI), Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion (FCAAP), Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS)—as well as the on-campus National MagLab and the Panama City campus new Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, and Education (InSPIRE).

“Each one of these centers is humming with activity,” De says. “There are so many things that are going on right now. It is just an amazing time with a huge focus on technology and science.”

As the SHIELD program unfolds, task orders, known as project descriptions, will be released. Universities and contractors will have a short turnaround time to respond with their proposal bids. The MDA will identify the best project candidates and announce its selections. The accepted entities will move forward with identifying roles for the project before funding is distributed accordingly. 

At this stage, he says, it is unclear how many task orders will be presented and how many of those will be awarded to FSU. This, he says, is a result of its current unfolding as well as the program’s top-secret classification. 

Also unclear, De says, is the relation of SHIELD efforts to the Golden Dome for America, a presidential initiative signed into order in January 2025 by President Donald Trump and set to be operational within three years. 

The Golden Dome for America takes inspiration from Israel’s Iron Dome and President Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), aiming to protect the U.S. against intercontinental aerial threats, including ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, and other airborne attacks. SHIELD has similar goals but is more focused on services and deliverables. 

Photos by Mark Wallheiser / FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

“The Golden Dome is how to protect the United States; the SHIELD is providing (deliverables) that could help,” De explains, “so there are pieces (from SHIELD) that are going to be used. None of us actually have any idea of how that is going to be used in the Golden Dome.”

No matter the task order, FSU is equipped, established, and ready to tackle SHIELD deliverables. 

“MagLab has been functioning for almost 30 years, the other centers around 20 years, and they have done a lot of impactful research already,” De says. 

The newest addition to FSU’s research center, InSPIRE will open in 2026 and is already ramping up research efforts. The new institute is a result of a $98 million grant from the state’s Triumph Gulf Coast fund and will be further elevated by federal funding awarded through SHIELD. 

“What we are doing in Innovation Park, with our established research centers, including the MagLab and the very new applied research institute that we have in Panama City, InSPIRE, all form this entire ecosystem that is very well suited to this homeland security initiative,” De says.

The Department of War is creating an ecosystem, too—one that will bring defense contractors and universities together where they may not have otherwise connected and give a platform to some smaller entities to be part of a larger picture. 

“Smaller and medium companies, that’s the lifeblood of the next generation,” De says. “The way that we interface depends upon how our ecosystem provides that. We would be able to directly provide, for example, new vehicle concepts, but when it comes to actual production, we are not a manufacturing company.” 

Within FSU, the campus ecosystem and collaboration have long been established and will smoothly transition to fulfill the needs of SHIELD task orders. Being keenly aware of capabilities across centers means they are able to swiftly identify task orders that the university will be best suited for. 

“If a project is tilted toward aerodynamics, it will go to FCAAP; if it’s tilted more toward just materials, it will go to HPMI,” De explains, “but for example, if they’re talking about materials for aerospace, then the two centers will have to work together. Now, what about the power systems associated with that propulsion system? Then, they’ll have to come to CAPS as well.”

As the centers come together to fulfill task order requests, De says the result will be tangible deliverables to be deployed for national defense. This could mean software, hardware, testing resources, or other products. 

At the time of this writing, De says task orders have not yet arrived, but the centers have their plates full in the meantime, working on projects in quantum, cybersecurity, and other societally relevant fields. 

“There is a lot of excitement, but people are not waiting for this; there are so many things right now that need to be done,” De says. “It’s really heartwarming to see that our researchers are really engaged in so many different things and working so well with different national priorities.”   

Key Takeaways: 

SHIELD will award up to $151 billion to universities and contractors across the country. 

FSU will compete for funding with proposal bids on a per-project basis. 

An MDA initiative, SHIELD operates separately from the presidential Golden Dome initiative. 

Products of SHIELD may contribute to the architecture of the Golden Dome. 

Major FSU research centers to be involved in SHIELD task order execution: 

HPMI – High-Performance Materials Institute

FCAAP – Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion

CAPS – Center for Advanced Power Systems

MagLab – National MagLab

InSPIRE – Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, and Education