The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has teamed up with the University of Texas, Austin, and other regional universities to establish a new facility that will advance science and technology research projects in support of the Army of 2050 and the Defense Department’s Third Offset Strategy.

ARL South will be based at UT Austin and will focus on materials technology research through co-location and collaboration between ARL and university scientists and engineers as part of the research lab’s Open Campus program, ARL said Wednesday.

Philip Perconti, acting ARL director, said ARL South will focus on additive manufacturing, energy and power, biosciences, intelligent systems and cyber sciences, among other research areas.

“ARL’s plan is to locate research staff at key locations in the U.S. such as the south central region,” Perconti said.

“This extension of ARL to the nation’s innovation hubs will allow us to establish new relationships with other researchers in academia and industry,” he added.

The General Services Administration’s 18F organization has produced a new guidebook that contains resources and instructions on how to develop agile software, open source software and modular contracting methods.

Mark Headd and Robin Carnahan from 18F wrote in a blog post published Tuesday the new resources resulted from the GSA digital service hub’s collaboration with state governments such as California and Mississippi.

The collaboration aims to help update legacy systems with new modular contracting methods, human-centered design and agile software development approaches.

The guidebook contains information intended to help explain the concepts of open source and agile software development, as well as a list of frequently asked questions based on 18F’s previous works with state governments.

18F also compiled resources to inform government agencies on modular contracting and help them implement that modular approach in their organization.

The resources are available through 18F’s account on GitHub, where the public is allowed to submit suggestions for improvement.

Gregory Touhill, federal chief information security officer at the Office of Management and Budget, has outlined five cybersecurity areas that he plans to prioritize as the first federal CISO.

Touhill wrote in a blog post published Wednesday that his office plans to build up recruitment practices, employee retention and skills development as well as leverage training and targeted education through the Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy.

He also cited the need to treat data as an asset and implement best practices in an effort to prevent data breaches and other cyber attacks within the federal government.

Touhill said his office will work to invest in efforts to update legacy information technology systems and adopt cloud and mobility platforms in order to reduce network vulnerabilities, as well as leverage metrics to facilitate the decision making process for cyber risk management.

He also mentioned the establishment of the Chief Information Security Officer Council that will work to facilitate collaboration among federal CISOs.

The White House appointed Touhill as the first federal CISO in September as part of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan that President Barack Obama unveiled in February.