The purpose of the LSU Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education (ACE) is to plan and administer high quality, comprehensive, and uniformly delivered programs through the most efficient use of resources available, in order to assist in meeting the training and educational needs of as many personnel as possible and in order that lives and property may be saved more safely and effectively.

Louisiana State University (LSU) and The New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) have combined their considerable intellectual talents, research facilities, and experience to address the nation's top domestic security concern. These educational institutions have pioneered the Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education by means of a grant from the Office of Justice Program's Office of State and Local Domestic Preparedness Support. ACE provides a unique forum in which to conduct research of and provide education of political leaders, emergency management personnel, and emergency response personnel, all of whom maintain varying levels of responsibility for planning and responding to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

The goal of ACE is to provide a focused, long-term national capability to execute and sustain a comprehensive program for emergency responder education and training. U.S. dollars will provide the force protection technology to train federal, military, National Guard, state and local police, fire, medical and other first responders in detection, preventions and response to terrorist attacks and incidents involving WMD.