The National Security Agency has awarded five-year contracts to six multidisciplinary laboratories at U.S. research institutions to support security research efforts and transition ideas to real-world application.

NSA said Wednesday the awardees are small laboratories located at the Carnegie-Mellon University, International Computer Science Institute, North Carolina State University, University of Illinois-Champaign, Vanderbilt University and University of Kansas.

The lablets are part of the agency’s Science of Security and Privacy Initiative and the agency selected them after a competitive solicitation of proposals from approximately 300 universities nationwide.

Selection criteria include the scientific process of research projects; applicability to modern challenges; and capacity to expand a scientific community in the security and privacy areas.

Lablets will kick off 20 research projects that encompass challenges in cyber-physical systems, policy-governed secure collaboration, cybersecurity metrics, scalability and composability, resilient architecture, privacy and understanding and accounting for human behavior.

NSA launched its SoS Initiative in 2012 to promote security and privacy science as a research field and encourage researchers to develop new methodologies.

The Senate voted 50-49 Thursday to confirm Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., as NASA administrator, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Bridenstine will replace Robert Lightfoot, who has been leading NASA as acting chief since January 2017 and is set to retire by the end of April after a nearly three-decade career at the space agency.

“I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the president’s vision for American leadership in space,” Bridenstine said in a statement published Friday.

Bridenstine’s confirmation came a month after House lawmakers called on the upper chamber to expedite his appointment in order for NASA to have a permanent leader to decide on several space exploration programs.

He is a former naval aviator, a sponsor of the American Space Renaissance Act and former executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium in Oklahoma.

President Donald Trump nominated Bridenstine to the NASA chief role in September 2017.

Jessica Salmoiraghi, former director of federal agencies and international programs at the American Council of Engineering Companies, has joined the General Services Administration as associate administrator of its Office of Government-wide Policy.

GSA said Wednesday Salmoiraghi will be responsible for helping develop the agency’s policies related to personal and real property, travel and transportation, information technology, regulatory information and use of federal advisory committees.

At ACEC, she led the council’s efforts to help address procurement challenges that have affected the engineering sector.

She previously served as director of federal relations and counsel at the American Institute of Architects and helped promote AIA’s advocacy and outreach efforts to the federal government.