The Department of Energy will award $2.5M in funds to 12 projects that will work to develop methods in augmenting technology commercialization efforts.

The agency seeks to reinforce the national laboratories’ capacity to serve private firms and enable access to their offerings through the Practices to Accelerate the Commercialization of Technologies initiative, DOE said Tuesday.

Seventeen national laboratories, six external partners and one National Nuclear Security Administration facility have teamed up in line with the effort.

“Secretary Perry has charged DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions with maximizing the impact of research and technologies developed across our sprawling lab complex to boost American economic competitiveness and national security,” said Conner Prochaska, chief commercialization officer and director of the Office of Technology Transitions at DOE.

“The PACT call propels us toward that objective, and our Labs have delivered by designing creative ways to streamline the lab-to-market process by leveraging their individual strengths and promoting cooperation across the Department.”

The U.S. Marine Corps is conducting experiments to inform the structure of a new operational concept for expeditions, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, commanding general of USMC’s Combat Development Command, said 13 teams are testing possible structures for the expeditionary advanced base operations or EABO concept.

The new concept revolves around the idea of expeditionary bases that can move quickly to perform a range of activities, the report noted.

Gen. David Berger, USMC commandant, is receiving EABO recommendations through the end of October. Teams will further test EABO ideas via exercises.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office within the Department of Justice is prioritizing efforts to improve the handling of large datasets and ensuring their security throughout the litigation process, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Greg Hall, chief information security officer at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, told the publication that his office is also focusing on identity governance and administration systems that encompass a range of processes such as logging, analytics, credentials management and accounts issuance.

He added that the department intends to partner with industry and leverage commercial cloud technologies to simplify its data processing operations.

“It will provide a capability to manage our documents more effectively. It will provide workflows, editing, etc. We’ve been a big advocate for it, particularly with regards to the litigation capabilities, and I think you’ll see more of that,” he noted.

Public and private sector representatives cited the need for collaboration in current and future space missions at this year’s International Astronautical Congress in Washington, D.C., Space News reported Tuesday.

Ryan Whitley, civil space policy director at the National Space Council, told attendees that investing in private sector partnerships will enable the government to benefit from a strong space economy and reduced costs for space missions.

“Public-private partnerships are essential to what we are trying to do,” said Margaret Kieffer, director of NASA’s Export Control and Interagency Liaison Division. “Entrepreneurs see the advantage and the economic benefit of putting their own skin in the game.”

Kevin O’Connell, director of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce, said his office is working with entrepreneurs to help grow the space economy and simplify regulations.

“We see entrepreneurs thinking about training and feeding people who will live and work on the moon for long periods of time,” he noted.

According to Kieffer, NASA currently has around 700 partnerships with entities around the world.

The Government Accountability Office has found that federal land management agencies have not fully assessed the security of facilities for the protection of employees.

The country’s Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service have experienced threats that targeted employees between fiscal years 2013 and 2017, GAO said in a report released Monday.

These agencies possess law enforcement units to secure facilities and employees, but have only completed a fraction of assessments mandated by the Interagency Security Committee. Fish and Wildlife, also known as FWS, has developed a plan to fulfill all assessments, but the three other agencies have not.

ISC additionally requires the agencies to consider all forms of possible violation and assess the threats and consequences of each case. Only the Forest Service’s methodology meets these needs.

The government watchdog recommends applicable agencies to follow up with an assessment completion plan and make further effort to address methodology requirements.