Naval Postgraduate School Foundation

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Foundation serves the almost 2,500 Naval Postgraduate School students (and their families) at any given time, the nearly 1,000 faculty and staff members and community members. employed by NPS at any given time. The NPS student body is made up of 88% active-duty service members from the U.S. six armed services and 225 international students from over 50 partner nations. Over 75% students live in the Monterey area, remaining in surrounding communities.Since 2009, the NPS Foundation has supported recreational clubs, numbering 14, at no charge to NPS student and alumni, and for a one-time $100 fee to faculty members which includes membership to all recreational clubs. This fee is a significant discount to local clubs, which charge annual fees for individual club memberships. The recreational clubs focus on creating a sense of community for Foundation members, particularly students. Over 900 members of the NPS community participate in the clubs fostering relationships at NPS and with the surrounding community. the NPS Foundation headquarters serves as an event space and meeting place for clubs, many of which hold weekly meetings during lunch hours or immediately after classes. In Fiscal Year 2022, the NPS Foundation provided over $60,000 in support of recreational clubs. In 2018, the NPS Foundation relaunched the NPS Alumni Association under an addendum to the MOU to establish, maintain, and cultivate among NPS graduates an enduring sentiment of regard and attachment for one another and NPS. There are currently over 10,000 total members of the NPS Foundation & Alumni Association, including 1,600 current student members.The Quarterly Academic and Faculty and Staff Awards sponsored by NPS Foundation recognize excellence in both students and faculty across multiple departments at a cost of over $80,000 annually. The NPS Foundation also supports the Awards and Graduation receptions at an average of $8,000 per quarter and over $32,000 annually.Currently supported NPS research initiatives include:1) The NPS Foundation has invested over $1.75 million since April 2020 for the planning and development of the Naval Innovation Center at NPS vision and has committed to work alongside NPS in the advocacy, development and funding of a Naval Innovation Center at NPS through its completion. Combining the latest in architectural initiatives and immersive technology, the Naval Innovation Center at NPS will be an incubator for advanced warfighting solutions up to the classified level. It will also enhance NPS education and research and serve as a resource for the Department of the Navy and the Naval Research and Development Enterprise.(2) The planned Human Enhancement Research Group (HERG), a center for research andinnovation in human enhancement at NPS, will conduct human performance researchthat will help keep our service members combat-ready. Over $1.2 million has beenraised to fund the infrastructure of the Operational Readiness Research Center, one of three pillars of the HERG, which will educate and train students in effective techniques to enhance functional capacity, strength, recovery and agility.(3) Project Athena is a collaborative research application built to empower researchers, sponsors and leaders at the NPS and across the Naval Education Enterprise and the Department of Defense to access and query information currently stored in numerous separate databases by use of keywords, topics of interest, service priorities and other filters. During the 2022 fiscal year, the NPS Foundation has invested over $550,000 and thousands of volunteer hours on the design, development and hosting of Athena. In June 2022, Athena 1.0 was gifted to and accepted by the Naval Postgraduate School and will be available to the NPS student body in early to mid 2023. Athena 2.0 is currently in beta testing on the NPS Foundation tenant, using NPS community input to improve the product and add new features.(4) Since 2015, the NPS Foundation has provided financial support to 40+ early-stageresearch and development projects at NPS through its Defense Innovation Fund andSeed Program. Projects focus on improving national security, increasing warfightingcapabilities, and addressing military inefficiencies. The program allows NPS students to partner with professors to turn ideas into action. In Fiscal Year 2022, the NPS Foundation provided $629,222 in support through the Defense Innovation Fund.Building #283 serves as a convening place for visiting research sponsors and industry partners to advance current and potential research projects.(5) Under the addendum to the MOU of 2017 (Attachment 1a), the NPS Foundation hassponsored over a dozen research fellowships at NPS, facilitating ongoing research inSecurity Studies, enriching existing curricula, and infusing new ideas in the classrooms of NPS. the NPS Foundation provided over $225,000 in support of the program and supported three fellows during the 2022 fiscal year.The NPS Foundation is dedicated to advocating for and supporting NPS and its students, faculty and alumni. Over the last five years, the NPS Foundation has contributed an average of $2,270,886 annually in direct and indirect support to enrich the NPS mission and functions of our commitment to NPS students and alumni.