In May 2011, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) awarded a Cooperative Agreement to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to create a science center for collaborative research in Solar-Planetary Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Through this arrangement, UMBC and its partners – University of Maryland College Park and American University – developed collaborative research programs in all areas of the Heliophysics sciences. This consortium between government and universities to create GPHI (Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute) not only provided a secure “home” for Heliophysics scientists, but also synergistically fostered new directions in research and technology.