The Department of Homeland Security has begun to deploy a new system designed to help DHS facilitate data sharing and collaboration with other federal agencies and organizations through the Homeland Security Information Network.

DHS’ science and technology directorate provided funds to help Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and cloud-based platform provider Queralt build the Backend Attribute Exchange tool, DHS said Thursday.

The Backend Attribute Exchange system works to streamline the process of verification and identification of individuals’ credentials between different agencies or organizations.

“Ensuring the identity of network users is critical to sharing information securely,” said Reginald Brothers, undersecretary for science and technology at DHS.

At least 55,000 individuals use HSIN to carry out planning and response operations in support of national security missions, the department noted.

The Defense Department has chosen 23 multidisciplinary research projects to receive grants worth a total of $162 million over the next five years.

DoD said Thursday 54 academic institutions will engage in the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program for fiscal year 2016 through the selected science and engineering projects.

In FY 2015, the MURI program awarded a total of $149 million to 22 research programs touching on 19 topics including impulsive biological force, quantum optics and dimensional organic polymers, ExecutiveGov reported June 2015.

Melissa Flagg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for research, said the MURI program has helped develop technology in support of military forces in the past 30 years, including laser frequency combs, nano-manufacturing and spintronics technology.

She added that DoD has also partnered with the National Science Foundation’s NSF Innovation Corps program to deliver training on entrepreneurship to selected MURI participants in support of efforts to engage with industry on the technologies developed through the initiative.

The U.S. Army‘s research office, the U.S. Air Force‘s office of scientific research and the Office of Naval Research received 270 white papers and 88 proposals on 21 topics for the FY 2016 competition.

Click here to view the list of MURI awardees for FY 2016.

The Department of Homeland Security has partnered with a consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a new center of excellence to develop critical infrastructure security tools and strategies.

DHS said Thursday the university will host an event Tuesday to mark the official launch of the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute CoE.

The CIRI consortium, which comprises 16 U.S. universities, companies and national laboratories, will run the new center as part of a potential $20 million grant awarded by DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate.

The group aims to help facilitate public-private initiatives to strengthen the resiliency of critical U.S. systems against cyber threats through the center.

Matt Clark, director of the DHS S&T Directorate’s Office of University Programs, Bob Kolasky, deputy assistant secretary at DHS’ Office of Infrastructure Protection, and University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen will deliver speeches at the CIRI CoE kickoff event.

The departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Treasury and Homeland Security use service level agreements to procure cloud computing services from the private sector, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

GAO said Thursday it reviewed a total of 21 cloud SLAs from those five departments in order to determine the extent to which they have incorporated 10 key contract management practices.

Seven of the contracts reviewed include all key practices, 13 contracts contain five to nine practices and one contract does not incorporate any of those practices.

“Unless agencies fully implement SLA key practices into their SLAs, they may not be able to adequately measure the performance of the services, and, therefore, may not be able to effectively hold the contractors accountable when performance falls short,” GAO noted.

The agency recommended that the Office of Management and Budget add the 10 key practices to its future guidance for federal agencies.