Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) has met with NASA leaders to discuss opportunities for the space agency to establish an unmanned aircraft systems traffic management program in North Dakota he believes would highlight the state’s UAS sector.

Hoeven seeks to help facilitate a partnership between NASA’s Ames Research Center, Northern Plains UAS Test Site and Grand Forks’ Grand Sky Technology Park, Hoeven’s office said in a release posted Tuesday.

In that release, he said the Northern Plains Test Site and Grand Sky Technology Park have infrastructure and manpower that could help NASA develop a traffic management system to integrate UAS in national civilian airspace.

Hoeven also wants to help North Dakota obtain an Federal Aviation Administration approval for beyond-line-of-sight operations to further endorse the Northern Plains Test Site for NASA’s UAS traffic management system and other programs of the agency, his office said.

The Northern Plains Test Site led close-proximity UAS flight tests in April to help NASA evaluate its traffic management platform.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) have said the National Science Foundation has awarded $899,477 in funds to the Old Dominion University Research Foundation to help Virginia colleges develop courses that seek to advance research and use of unmanned aerial systems.

Warner’s office said in a July 20 press release the NSF award also aims to help UAS operations technicians gain skills in the areas of geospatial exploration, acquisition and analysis.

The funds from NSF will support curriculum development, faculty mentorship and professional development initiatives as well as the three-year Geospatial Technician Education-Unmanned Aircraft Systems project.

GeoTEd-UAS plans to assist two community college partners in the development of academic courses for drone technicians and carry out activities such as leadership development workshops and skills and workforce analysis.

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium collaborates with Virginia Tech, Thomas Nelson Community College, Virginia Community College System and Mountain Empire Community College on the GeoTED-UAS project.

President Barack Obama has issued a new directive to establish principles that will govern the federal government’s response to malicious cyber activities in the public and private sectors.

The Presidential Policy Directive-41 designates the departments of Justice and Homeland Security as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as federal lead agencies for threat response, asset response and intelligence support, respectively, the White House said Tuesday.

The Obama administration instructed the Cyber Response Group to coordinate the government’s efforts to formulate and implement policy and strategy for cyber incidents that affect the country or its interests overseas.

A Cyber Unified Coordination Group shall be formed when a significant cybersecurity event affects critical infrastructure and could have a catastrophic impact on public safety, national security or economy, the directive states.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday the policy directs DHS to lead development of the National Cyber Incident Response Plan that will outline how the federal government should collaborate with businesses and state, local, and territorial agencies to respond to a significant breach.

“Today’s PPD is one more crucial step by the Obama administration to improve our nation’s cybersecurity,” Johnson noted.

“It not only clarifies the roles of the various government actors involved in cybersecurity, it re-enforces the reality that cybersecurity must be a partnership between the government and the private sector, and among the law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence components of the government.”

The FBI said Tuesday it aims will work to collect evidence and intelligence, address immediate threat, identify disruption activities and facilitate data exchange, coordinate with asset response personnel in support of PPD-41.