The National Science Foundation has launched a competition that aims to develop a model that individuals can use to select career opportunities in the government that match with their skills and interests.

NSF said in a Challenge.gov notice that the first part of the Career Compass Challenge will task participants to present a concept that will help address existing challenges in retraining employees and increasing mobility within and between federal agencies, among other things.

Interested entities have until Dec. 31 to submit their concept white papers for evaluation by a panel of judges.

Up to five competitors will qualify for the second round of the challenge based on their creativity, clarity of concepts and ideas, presentation of proposals and use of evidence-based practices.

Each of the initial winners in the first round will receive a cash prize of $5k. Up to five winners will be selected for a total prize of $25k.

For the second round of the Career Compass Challenge, participants will be tasked to develop a working prototype of the workforce organization mechanism based on the winning concepts.

NSF will organize an entrance conference that will allow solvers to understand the ideals for data and staff subject matter expertise, interact with other competitors and address concerns regarding the selected concept papers.

The second part of the competition will commence in February 2019 and is expected to wrap up in August in the same year.

The grand winner will receive a cash prize of $75K.

The effort aims to provide additional knowledge for future cross-sector collaborations and innovation that the government plans to execute through the the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center, which is tasked to address workforce management challenges at the executive branch enterprise level.

The Department of Health and Human Services has set the initial schedule for the start of a collaborative program to widen research and development opportunities for the U.S. healthcare industry.

The Deputy Secretary’s Innovation and Investment Summit, a year-long initiative to bring private innovators, investors and HHS personnel together to boost investment in health services, has set Dec. 18 as the day of the first meeting, HHS said Wednesday. The workgroup will discuss topics such as healthcare innovation, emerging technologies and industry regulatory policies.

HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan said the program can contribute to healthcare modernization in the U.S.

“As the healthcare community innovates, HHS must also be innovative in how we engage with that community,” Hargan added.

Participants in DSIIS include:\n

• 3M
• Linden Partners
• Mayo Clinic
• Sandbox Industries
• UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement

A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows that the Office of Personnel Management has failed to help federal agencies access effective practices on performance management. Officials found that the OPM did not modernize its performance guidance to provide new information despite the changes in the performance management industry, the GAO said in the report.

“Without effective performance management, agencies risk not only losing the skills of top talent, they also risk missing the opportunity to effectively address increasingly complex and evolving mission challenges,” the report stated. 

A survey conducted from 2010 through 2017 showed only 39 percent of federal employees were satisfied with statements related to rewarding performance in the OPM’s performance management phases. The GAO recommended that the OPM regularly update its performance management website to include the latest guidance and resources, develop and implement a mechanism for agencies to routinely and independently share promising practices, and create a strategic approach for identifying and sharing emerging research and innovation.

The OPM, which manages the government’s civilian workforce, agreed with the recommendations.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will realign multiple programs within the Veterans Health Administration into four offices to improve care coordination for former service members. The consolidation will cover the areas of population health, education and training of healthcare professionals, research, academic affiliations, engineering services and human resources, the VA said last week.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said realigning the programs and consolidating offices will reduce bureaucracy within the agency, provide clearer governance and promote greater accountability. 

The realignment effort include:\n

• Consolidating six programs for population health into one office to reduce administrative burden on the Veterans Integrated Services Networks and hospitals.
• Putting the Office of Academic Affiliations and Office of Research and Development under the new Discovery, Education and Affiliates Networks office.
• Integrating engineering and environment of care functions into a single office for coordinated environmental and safety initiatives.
• Combining four headquarters-based HR groups into one office for efficiency of HR organization and a more transparent and consistent service.

\nPresident Trump required the realignment through his Executive Order 13781 initiating the reorganization of the executive branch. The VA began work on the project on Nov. 25th.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has submitted to Congress its work plan for several projects under its Civil Works program.

The service said Wednesday it will get a total of $6.9B in fiscal 2019 funds for the Army Civil Works program through the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

Approximately $4.5B in appropriations will go to USACE’s five accounts: the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program; construction; investigations; operation and maintenance; and Mississippi River and tributaries.

USACE will allocate approximately $2.1B in funds to navigation projects, flood risk management programs, other authorized project purposes and FUSRAP.

The remaining $432M will be earmarked for USACE’s Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies efforts; expenses; regulatory account; and initiatives of the office of the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works.

The work plan includes funds for 21 construction projects; 15 feasibility studies and a limited re-evaluation report; and five preconstruction engineering and design projects.

Click here to view the list of projects and studies.
 

President Donald Trump plans to authorize the Defense Department to oversee the governmentwide program for security clearances through an executive order, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Sources said the Pentagon plans to combine the National Background Investigations Bureau with the Defense Security Service and other DoD components to establish the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to oversee the security clearance process.

The proposed DCSA will operate with over 10K federal and contractor employees and two organizational units: a counterintelligence analysis center and a critical technology protection center, according to a defense official.

Patricia Stokes, director of defense vetting at DSS, will oversee DCSA’s personnel vetting directorate, two industry sources told the publication.

The DoD official noted that the planned DCSA will also be responsible for the department’s consolidated adjudications facility that helps determine a candidate’s clearance eligibility and other counterintelligence resources.

Lt. Col. Audricia Harris, a spokeswoman for DoD, said the Pentagon has begun to update the vetting process for personnel.

“We are working closely with our interagency partners and the Performance Accountability Council Program Management Office to ensure the successful transition of the mission while conducting background investigations,” Harris said in a statement.
 

The Department of Agriculture granted the Excellence in BioPreferred Procurement Awards to Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

The awards recognize the national laboratories’ fiscal year 2018 works on bio-based products, the USDA said Monday. LANL used bio-based products as alternatives to traditional oil-based lubricants for metal-cutting machines. Meanwhile, LLNL recycled bio-based materials to produce cutlery, cups, containers and other food service ware. The laboratory recycled 68 metric tons of compostable waste last year.

“The Excellence in BioPreferred Procurement Awards initiative recognizes outstanding achievements in advancing the objectives of the BioPreferred Federal Purchasing Preference Program,” said Vernell Thompson, procurement analyst for the USDA BioPreferred Program.

The program is intended to generate manufacturing jobs and new commodity markets in support of the Rural Investment Act.

The Government Accountability Office reports that, over the past 10 fiscal years, U.S. Navy attack submarines suffered significant maintenance service delays resulting in protracted idle times and billions of dollars in support costs.

The GAO said following a recent audit that, from fiscal 2008 to the end of the current fiscal year, the Navy’s attack submarines will have spent more than 10,000 days sitting inoperable at various shipyards across the country due to on-going maintenance or delays. According to the government watchdog’s computations, the amount of time these boats will have spent idling translates to more than $1.5B lost in operating and support costs.

Maintenance delays have been attributed to the Navy’s over-reliance on public shipyards, which have been operating above capacity, and the underutilization of private ones. The GAO called on the Navy’s leadership to carry out a business case analysis to determine how to expedite maintenance services.

NASA will land its Mars 2020 Rover on the red planet’s Jezero Crater for a mission to search for past microbial life and gather rock and soil samples.

The space agency said Tuesday it evaluated over 60 potential landing spots before selecting the Jezero Crater, a former location of an ancient river delta.

Scientists say that the crater may have maintained ancient organic molecules and microbial life evidence in clays and carbonates currently within the area.

The Jezero Crater is also part of Mars’ Isidis Planitia, a large impact basin geographically above the planet’s equator.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The mission will begin in July 2020 with United Launch Alliance providing the launch vehicle.