An agreement on the Federal Aviation Administration's funding could bring the Grand Forks region closer to becoming a test site for unmanned aircraft systems.
"We're going really hard after a national test center," Al Palmer, director of UND's UAS Center for Excellence, said Wednesday.
The U.S. House of Representative and Senate on Tuesday agreed to a funding bill that requires six UAS test sites, and the Department of Defense and the FAA are working out selection criteria for test sites, he said.
Selection of a site could come in September, he said at a meeting of the Community-Base Enhancement Initiative on Wednesday.
Palmer also said UND was exploring partnerships with schools in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Montana to host a UAS national center of excellence.
