Jeffery Walker, Ph.D., has been awarded an $18,284 seed grant from The MITRE Corporation’s National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center and the University System of Maryland.

The grant will help fund work by Walker to identify which types of businesses embrace or overlook the importance of cybersecurity, capture best practices and develop strategies to increase the adoption of cybersecurity technologies.

“I will be working to develop a preliminary survey that could be used nationwide to paint a better picture of what agencies across the United States are not utilizing cybersecurity technologies and why,” Walker said.

Walker is one of five academic researchers to receive a seed grant. The grants, totaling nearly $293,000, went to researchers at universities in Alabama, Maryland, Texas and Virginia. Each awardee represents a university member of the NCF Academic Affiliates Council, a network of cybersecurity experts from academic institutions across the country.

UAB was one of nine universities chosen by MITRE in 2014 to serve on the Academic Affiliates Council. The council was formed to support the not-for-profit company’s operation of the nation’s first federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) solely dedicated to enhancing cybersecurity and protecting national information systems. The FFRDC is sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Walker is a professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences Department of Justice Sciences, where he also serves as chair.