The Department of Energy will award $13.5 million in grants to six projects that aim to create new methods for microscopic imaging of microbes and plants. DOE said Friday that it seeks to develop a visual understanding of metabolic processes at subcellular and cellular levels through the use of new technologies including quantum dots.

The agency selected the projects through a competitive peer review process sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research. Paul Dabbar, undersecretary at DOE, said the new approaches will help further reengineering efforts for plants and microbes for bioenergy production.

DOE will obligate $4.5M for the three-year projects from fiscal year 2019 funds.

The U.S. Navy has completed a three-year “tech refresh” effort for its enterprise resource management system 10 months ahead of the expected completion date. The Navy said Friday that modernization of the Enterprise Resource Planning system involved transitioning all operations to the cloud, making it the service’s largest cloud migration effort to date. 

The Navy ERP handles resource management to support around 72,000 users and transactions worth over $70 billion. Prior to the modernization, the system deployed an outdated SAP server and an Oracle platform.

“I am proud of the efforts to accomplish this on an accelerated schedule, cutting the projected timeline nearly in half,” said Navy Secretary and two-time Wash100 Award winner Richard Spencer. “The team managed this through innovative approaches to problem solving and close collaboration with integration teams, network engineers and industry partners.”

Thomas Harker, assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller, noted that the effort supports the service’s goals to consolidate its financial operations, produce accurate information and improve auditing as well as data analytics functions. According to Rear Adm. Michelle Skubic, commander of the Naval Supply Systems Command, the updated system supports efforts to meet performance improvement goals and promotes supply chain visibility. 

The Trump administration released a memo to update the review process for launching commercial spacecraft carrying nuclear power systems, Space News reported Thursday. President Trump issued the memo on Tuesday with the intent of establishing a three-tier system for approving the delivery of payloads such as fission reactors, which may result in hazards such as radiation exposure if an accident occurs.

“Our primary objective here is to ensure that rigorous and effective nuclear safety analysis and reviews are conducted prior to the launch of any space nuclear system,” said Kelvin Droegemeier, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, at a National Space Council meeting in Chantilly, Va.

The first two tiers will cover spacecraft to undergo reviews by sponsoring agencies and potentially NASA’s future Nuclear Safety Review Board. Spacecraft under the third tier will require presidential authorization through OSTP or the National Security Council.

The U.S. Army is preparing to implement a Microsoft-developed, web-based app designed to help equipment officers determine the performance effects of new close-combat gear, Military.com reported Thursday.

John Howell, who leads the Army’s Adaptative Squad Architecture program, said the platform would provide quantitative information such as an equipment’s weight. The effort is intended to equip soldiers as whole warfighting platforms and transition away from the approach of fielding equipment pieces individually.

“In order to treat the soldier as an integrated weapons platform, this is the kind of thing you need to be able to do,” Howell said.

The service branch is also evaluating infantry squads at Camp Shelby, Miss., to gather performance data, in addition to the app, said Brig. Gen. Anthony Potts, head of the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released new guidelines to help organizations better protect their systems against ransomware attacks.

CISA listed 15 courses of action such as keeping offline data backups, performing constant system updates, isolating infected systems and reviewing connections with outside entities including customers, partners and vendors. The Department of Homeland Security component also recommended organizations to practice good cyber hygiene, segment networks and establish a good recovery strategy.

“We have assisted many ransomware response and recovery efforts, building an understanding of how ransomware attacks unfold, and what potential steps you can take to better defend systems,” according to CISA. “But we also recognize that there’s no such thing as perfect cybersecurity and ransomware infections can still happen, so we’ve also developed recommendations to help organizations limit damage, and recover smartly and effectively.”