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SandboxAQ to Partner With Sanofi to Identify Biomarkers Using LQMs
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SandboxAQ to Partner With Sanofi to Identify Biomarkers Using LQMs

SandboxAQ will partner with Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical and healthcare company, to locate biomarkers during clinical development.

Using SandboxAQ’s quantitative AI models, the project aims to filter knowledge graphs to gain a better understanding of human biology, supporting scientists’ ability to promote trust throughout investigational medicines and clinical development, the AI and quantum technology company announced Tuesday.

Nadia Harhen, general manager of AI simulation at SandboxAQ, said, “The application with Sanofi focused on biomarker identification is very exciting as it increases our reach into later-stage clinical development and the patient benefit that can be unlocked far beyond the early stages of drug discovery.”

SandboxAQ’s Large Quantitative AI Models 

SandboxAQ’s large quantitative models — or LQMs — are trained on numerous data streams including proprietary data produced by the company’s algorithms. SandboxAQ’s LQMs avoid the barriers in scale and accuracy critical to natural large language models trained on public data accessible on the internet.

“Large Quantitative Models, such as those we use to causally filter through knowledge graphs, are proving impactful in many areas across the life sciences, from drug repurposing to reverse screening,” Harhen noted.

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Mark Munsell Appointed NGA Chief AI Officer
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Mark Munsell Appointed NGA Chief AI Officer

Mark Munsell has been appointed chief AI officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, DefenseScoop reported Tuesday. The new NGA CAIO will continue in his current role as director of the data and digital innovation directorate.

In his new role, Munsell will spearhead the agency’s existing and future geospatial intelligence AI initiatives. He will coordinate and integrate these efforts and advise the executive team on the utilization of AI innovations in the agency’s operations and production. Furthermore, Munsell will establish the frameworks for the responsible use of AI technology.

Aside from his dual role at the agency, Munsell will serve on the U.S. intelligence community’s CAIO Council. As part of the council, he will help develop the IC’s AI strategies and oversee investments to fund the implementation of such strategies. He will also work on creating policies and guidelines for managing AI-related risks and offer suggestions on the use of AI-enabled architectures.

Munsell started as a software engineer for NGA in 1995 before joining Northrop Grumman as technical director two years later. He then rejoined NGA holding a variety of leadership roles including chief technology officer and deputy director of the information technology directorate.

Prior to his first stint with NGA, Munsell spent four years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator working as a cartographer and software engineer.

Munsell’s appointment coincides with the efforts of the IC and Department of Defense to adopt more AI capabilities as mandated by President Joe Biden’s new national security memorandum.

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GSA Taps Government Tech Leaders to Join TMF Board
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GSA Taps Government Tech Leaders to Join TMF Board

The General Services Administration has announced the addition of three new members to the Technology Modernization Board, a group of government leaders and technology experts that oversee funding allocation for modernization projects and provide strategic guidance to federal agencies under the Technology Modernization Fund. The new board members will bring their expertise and extensive leadership experience in information technology, cybersecurity, procurement and financial management to TMF, GSA said Tuesday. 

New TMF Board Members

Pritha Mehra from the U.S. Postal Service, Katherine Sickbert from the Federal Reserve Board and Matt Montaño from the National Park Service join the current seven-member TMF Board led by Clare Martorana, federal chief information officer and a Wash100 awardee. 

Mehra serves as chief information officer and executive vice president of the USPS. In this role, she led large-scale digital transformation initiatives at the agency and played a major role in its rapid COVID test delivery program during the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, Sickbert is an associate director for Technology Strategy and Delivery and monetary affairs at the Federal Reserve. Before joining the government, she held leadership positions at technology companies Booz Allen Hamilton and Salesforce. 

Montaño is the information chief of NPS. He previously served as director of GSA’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, where he led modernization and digital transformation programs across the federal government. He also held the CIO position at the National Eye Institute and Palo Alto Health Care System. 

In a statement, Martorana pointed to TMF’s role in ensuring that critical agency missions are met.

“TMF investments are enabling agencies to deploy technology that is secure by design and secure by default, eliminate paper processes and reduce burden for customers and the federal workforce,” the TMF board chief stated. “Agencies receiving TMF investments are demonstrating that they can deliver exceptional government experiences for the public.”

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Army Testing New AI Workspace for Contract Writing, Other Uses
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Army Testing New AI Workspace for Contract Writing, Other Uses

U.S. Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground is conducting a pilot test of A.I. Flow, a tailored AI workspace built by the Communications-Electronics Command Software Engineering Center, or CECOM SEC, to enhance the Army’s operations.

A.I. Flow, authorized to operate with controlled unclassified information, is currently accessible to select engineering center personnel, the U.S. Army said Tuesday.

A.I. Flow Uses

The product, which has a secure, user-friendly interface, can be used for various applications, including writing appraisals, new job information and contracts. CECOM SEC, in partnership with ACC-APG, sets parameters, uploads example documents and creates guidelines to create a justification and approval document, or J&A, for military contracting. According to the military branch, the trial showed that A.I. Flow can deliver one such document that is 80 percent complete.

With the AI-powered system, developing a J&A document will be faster compared to the manual process, which takes days or weeks.

A.I. Flow can be customized to meet the specific needs of users. The team behind the software’s development continuously receives feedback to improve the program and support more use cases.

Generative AI as a Service

The pilot test is expected to result in a fully operational A.I. Flow, which Ronald Rizzo, deputy executive director of CECOM SEC, described as “generative AI as a service.”

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Input Sought on Federal Guidance for Greater Public Engagement
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Input Sought on Federal Guidance for Greater Public Engagement

The Office of Management and Budget is soliciting comments regarding two documents meant to help government agencies improve opportunities for public participation and community engagement when it comes to policy and program formulation.

Guidance for Public Engagement

The first document serves as a draft guidance that offers federal agencies with definitions and principles related to participation and engagement, a sample decision-making framework on when and how the public should be involved, and recommended steps on how public engagement can be broadened, according to a blog entry posted Tuesday on Performance.gov.

The draft guidance also calls on agencies to adopt leading engagement practices and offers steps that can be taken by the Federal Executive Councils to support the broadening of public participation and engagement.

Toolkit for Public Participation

The second document is a draft outline for a toolkit to be used by agencies in planning, implementing and assessing participation and engagement impacts. The same toolkit would serve to centralize materials that could help with public engagement.

Comments from the public will be used by OMB to develop the final guidance and toolkit. Interested parties have until Nov. 29 to respond.

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DOD Increases Spending on PLEO Satellite Internet Program to $13B
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DOD Increases Spending on PLEO Satellite Internet Program to $13B

The Department of Defense has raised the ceiling value of the Proliferated Low Earth Orbit, or PLEO, Satellite-Based Services program, from $900 million to approximately $13 billion in response to the increasing demand across the military, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

PLEO Contract

The Defense Information Systems Agency and Space Systems Command’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office, or CSCO, manage the PLEO program, which launched in 2023.

PLEO is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a five-year base term and five option years. Under this contract, 20 contractors are eligible to compete for task orders.

In July 2023, DISA initially selected 16 vendors for the IDIQ contract. Three months later, it was announced that four additional companies were added to the contract vehicle.

In January, CSCO Director Clare Hopper hinted at the possibility of raising the contract ceiling due to rising military demand.

Prior to the increase, about $660 million of the contract’s original ceiling had been spent.

According to the report, most of the orders under the contract have been for the militarized version of SpaceX‘s Starlink service called Starshield.

Offering Flexibility to Vendors and Government

Kevin Seybert, SpaceX’s business development leader for Starlink and Starshield, said the PLEO contract allows vendors to define services, enabling them to advance more flexible pricing options.

Seybert added that the contract could help DOD keep pace with commercial innovation because it allows them to integrate new tech capabilities.

According to the report, the IDIQ contract provides the government with an opportunity to get more favorable pricing by consolidating demand across all military branches.

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CISA Issues Three-Pronged International Cybersecurity Roadmap
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CISA Issues Three-Pronged International Cybersecurity Roadmap

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has outlined three goals in its first international roadmap for the proactive engagement of foreign partners to bolster the security and resilience of critical U.S. infrastructure. 

CISA Director Jen Easterly said the agency’s 2025–2026 International Strategic Plan released on Tuesday will pave the way for improving coordination and strengthening relationships with allies “to reduce risk to the globally interconnected and interdependent cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day.”

The Plan in Three Parts

One of the objectives of the three-pronged strategic plan focuses on pinpointing the priority infrastructures critical to bolstering U.S. security and resilience. To pursue this goal, CISA will boost its coordination with U.S. government agencies and global and domestic partners on the prioritized foreign critical infrastructure and supply chains.

CISA’s global strategy also calls for strengthening integrated cyber defense to lower shared risks through increased engagements of the U.S. bilateral and multilateral Computer Security Incident Response Team.

As the agency’s third goal, CISA will unify and standardize its inter-agency processes and procedures for international activities.

CISA’s recent globally oriented work covered coordination with the National Security Agency, the FBI and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center in a collaborative project with counterparts in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to establish guidelines on creating and maintaining a safe and secure environment for operational technology.

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DOD Seeks Manufacturing Tech to Modernize Industrial Base
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DOD Seeks Manufacturing Tech to Modernize Industrial Base

The Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology program has issued a broad other transaction announcement to identify companies with new manufacturing processes and emerging technologies.

The BOTA seeks proposals on advanced manufacturing capabilities that could be readily integrated into the U.S. defense industrial base, DOD ManTech said Tuesday, noting that the government is interested in mid- or high-level technologies and prototypes that would help the DOD modernize its industrial base.

Under the program, the Defense Department seeks to increase its collaboration with capable vendors to identify, develop and advance defense manufacturing and repair processes. The effort also intends to accelerate the deployment of newly developed warfighting capabilities.

The DOD invites all sources that can meet the government’s requirements to submit a white paper or presentation. Interested parties are encouraged to submit separately if they plan to furnish multiple proposals.

Multiple awards can be expected under the BOTA but the amount of resources will be determined by the quality of received submissions and the availability of funds.

Launched on Oct. 2, the BOTA will remain open until 2027.

DOD Seeks Manufacturing Tech to Modernize Industrial Base

On Jan. 23, 2026, join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Defense R&D Summit. Engage in discussions with key industry players and forge valuable connections at the summit.

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NASA to Relaunch Mentor-Protégé Program
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NASA to Relaunch Mentor-Protégé Program

NASA is set to relaunch its Mentor-Protégé Program for contractors on Nov. 1 to boost the growth of commercial markets supporting the future of space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

The agency said Tuesday the program aims to encourage NASA prime contractors to partner with small businesses on various contracts and subcontract awards to enhance the protégés’ performance through technical and developmental assistance from the mentors. The program also intends to help the mentors and protégés develop long-term business relationships and build more networking and contract opportunities while reducing gaps in the supply chain.

The relaunched program will be open to all small businesses, underserved communities and minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Ability One entities. The program will also focus on North American Industry Classifications System codes and specific industry sectors like research and development and aerospace manufacturing.

NASA will manage each mentor-protégé partnership while the agency’s Office of Small Business Programs will oversee the program. Performance reviews will be held semi-annually to monitor the progress of each agreement.

Dwight Deneal, assistant administrator of the OSBP, stated, “The NASA Mentor-Protégé Program is a critical enabling tool that allows experienced companies to provide business developmental assistance to emerging firms. The program enables NASA to expand its industrial base of suppliers, as prime and subcontractors, to assist in executing the mission and programs throughout the agency.”

An online lunch and learn event will be held on Nov. 7 at 1:00 p.m. EST to provide more information about the program.

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DOD Shares Plan for National Defense Industrial Strategy Rollout
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DOD Shares Plan for National Defense Industrial Strategy Rollout

The Department of Defense has released a plan outlining the measures DOD will take to implement the National Defense Industrial Strategy, or NDIS.

DOD said Tuesday the NDIS Implementation Plan outlines six key implementation initiatives and associated lines of effort that will enable the department to mitigate risks and achieve a more resilient defense industrial base.

“This implementation plan offers industry, global allies, and partners clear direction on the Department’s priorities for industrial capacity building,” said Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy.

6 Key Implementation Initiatives

The initiatives outlined in the document are Indo-Pacific deterrence, production and supply chains, allied and partner industrial collaboration, capabilities and infrastructure modernization, new capabilities using flexible pathways, and intellectual property and data analysis.

Each initiative comes with specific lines of effort.

Under production and supply chains, lines of effort include assessing supply chain risk vulnerabilities, onshoring critical production capacity and advancing industrial cybersecurity.

“Implementing these initiatives will require coordinated efforts across the DoD, and support and cooperation from our interagency, industry, and international stakeholders, as well as our champions in Congress,” noted Taylor-Kale.

What Is NDIS?

In January, the Pentagon issued the inaugural National Defense Industrial Strategy, outlining the department’s four strategic priorities: resilient supply chains, workforce readiness, flexible acquisition and economic deterrence.

The strategy recommends several measures under each strategic priority and intends to guide DOD’s policy development, engagement and investment in the defense industrial base over the next three to five years.

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