The National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), a Homeland Security Center of Excellence located at the University of Minnesota, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine. The agreement creates a partnership between the two organizations, both of which work to prevent intentional contamination of the food supply. An article about this historic agreement appeared recently in the Minnesota Daily.
MSI is working with the NCFPD to create databases and web interfaces that allow researchers to work with and analyze their data. A recently completed project includes a database that automatically imports data from U.S. government agencies and a web interface that allows the researchers to perform statistical analysis on the data. The interface also generates plots and other summaries. MSI application developers are now working on a project that will allow NCFPD researchers to collaborate and discuss their projects in a secure web-based environment.