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• Multiyear Plan for Bridge and Tunnel Security Research, Development, and Deployment

Multiyear Plan for Bridge and Tunnel Security Research, Development, and Deployment

Section 4: National Plan for R&D in Support of Critical Infrastructure Protection

Released by DHS and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in April 2005, this plan is the first annual version of the R&D roadmap for critical infrastructure protection required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 (HSPD-7), Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection.⁽¹⁾ The plan is national in scope, integrating cyber, physical, and human elements, and focuses on identification of capabilities, needs, and gaps based on known threats. The critical infrastructure per HSPD-7 includes the following sectors and key resources: Agriculture and Food; Water; Public Health and Healthcare; Emergency Services; the Defense Industrial Base; Information Technology; Telecommunications; Energy; Transportation Systems; Banking and Finance; Chemical Postal and Shipping; National Monuments and Icons; Dams; Government Facilities; Commercial Facilities; and Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste.

The HSPD-7 directive also requires the development of a National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). The development of the R&D plan was tasked to the Infrastructure Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), and was developed in coordination with the Interim NIPP released in February 2005.

This first R&D plan focuses on two items: (1) the creation of a baseline, including the identification of major research and technology development efforts within Federal Agencies; and (2) the articulation of a vision that takes into account future needs and identifies research gaps based on known threats. Agency capabilities and near-term plans were mapped to R&D focus areas. FHWA and other agencies within DOT were involved in this process.

The National Critical Infrastructure Protection (NCIP) R&D Plan is structured around nine themes:

• Detection and sensor systems.
• Protection and prevention.
• Entry and access portals.
• Insider threats.
• Analysis and decision support systems.
• Response, recovery, and reconstitution.
• New and emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
• Advanced infrastructure architectures and systems design.
• Human and social issues.

The nine themes are to address three strategic goals:

• National common operating picture for critical infrastructure.
• Next-generation computing and communications network with security "designed in" and inherent in all elements rather than added after the fact.
• Resilient, self-diagnosing, and self-healing physical and cyber infrastructure systems.