Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has instructed agencies to work with OMB to establish a database of current services program estimates before President Barack Obama leaves his post.

Donovan said in a memorandum published Friday that OMB plans to collect agency budget and programmatic data that the incoming administration can use as a reference to prepare a spending plan for fiscal year 2018.

“Such information might include the identification of recurring and non-recurring costs in FYs 2017 and 2018, [full-time equivalent] levels and personnel costs assuming current services, and estimates of program utilization for FY 2018,” he noted.

OMB will not require agencies to submit their formal budget requests or undergo the annual director’s review or passback process this September, according to Donovan.

He added agencies should wait until a new administration or a presidential transition team is in place before they  submit their performance plans and policy materials in support of their fiscal 2018 budget requests.

The agency is scheduled to issue a Circular A-11 government-wide guidance for FY 2018 budget preparations in June and aims to develop and implement the baseline budget database for agencies’ input by Nov. 1.

NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute have picked 27 proposals from 19 research organizations that seek to examine the potential effects of long-duration spaceflight missions on astronauts’ health and performance.

Research teams will receive funds worth a combined $12 million over a one- to three-year period from NASA’s Human Research Program and NSBRI, the institute said Friday.

The winning projects were selected from 131 proposals that were submitted in response to the Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions and NASA’s Human Research Program Artificial Gravity Opportunity announcements.

NASA will manage 20 of the research efforts and NSBRI will oversee the other seven projects.

According to the institute, research teams will investigate how the space environment can affect astronaut vision, behavioral health and performance, physiology and sensorimotor functions.

They aim to help build smart medical technologies in support of NASA’s future missions to Mars and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit.

Click here to view the full list of investigative teams that were chosen for the joint space medicine research initiative.

The U.S. Army hosted a second summit at Aberdeen Proving Ground last month in an effort to promote innovation.

Representatives from the Army Training and Doctrine Command and Army Materiel Command and technology, military and civilian leaders, scientists and engineers gathered at the two-day summit held April 5 to 6, the Army said Wednesday.

“Our goal is to foster innovation,” said Maj. Gen. John Wharton, event host and commanding general of the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command.

“The Army Operating Concept defines innovation as the result of critical and creative thinking and the conversion of new ideas into valued outcomes,” he added.

Paul Jaffe of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory also gave a speech on the U.S. Navy‘s current projects, including a concept called Space Solar that works to capture solar energy in space to be transferred through microwaves onto infrastructure on Earth.

He noted that this Navy concept looks to address issues regarding fossil supply used for energy.

Army officials added that the next summit is projected to commence on August when the organizers look to expand collaboration with partners in industry and academia.

The service branch holds the innovation summit every quarter as part of its Innovation Campaign, Wharton said.