The University of Hawaiʻi announced today that it has been selected by the Department of Defense to negotiate a new cooperative agreement as the managing partner for the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui. The center provides applied information research and analysis support in disaster management and humanitarian assistance.

UH has been managing the center since December 2006 under a three-year agreement. Letters of Qualification were solicited nationally this summer for a managing partner for a new five-year agreement. The new cooperative agreement is expected to have a total value of more than $30 million.
 
“The University of Hawaiʻi system is proud of the work our team has done over the past three years and honored to have been selected to continue our stewardship of the PDC,” UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said in a news release. “As the world faces increasing damage and harm from natural and man-made disasters, the PDC will be increasingly critical to improving our capacity to minimize suffering.”
 
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said, “The Pacific Disaster Center was established after Hurricane Iniki devastated the island of Kauaʻi because I wanted to be sure that Hawaiʻi had the disaster management and modeling capability to prepare and protect itself from natural and man-made disasters to the greatest extent possible. I am delighted at the success they have achieved in serving Hawaiʻi, the nation and the region.”
 
The Pacific Disaster Center employs approximately 40 professional staff. It is headquartered in the Maui Economic Development Board building in the Maui Research & Technology Park in Kihei. The center supplements its base operating budget of over $6 million per year with millions of dollars in additional competitively earned contracts and grants from governmental and private sources in Hawaiʻi, the U.S. and other countries.
 
Pacific Disaster Center is managed within the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Homeland Defense & Americas’ Security Affairs).