IARPA Awards Contracts to 9 Teams Under New Biointelligence & Biosecurity for IC Program
Published on
IARPA Awards Contracts to 9 Teams Under New Biointelligence & Biosecurity for IC Program

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity established a new program aimed at discovering innovations to improve the U.S. intelligence community’s biointelligence and biosecurity capabilities.

The research program has awarded contracts to nine teams, and will be divided into two phases with performance periods of nine months and 15 months, respectively, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced Wednesday.

The Biointelligence and Biosecurity for the Intelligence Community program is interested in technologies that can detect or characterize biological targets of interest. It will also fund projects that use cellular memory to improve biosecurity, as well as technologies that fortify the data infrastructure of biological samples, biotechnologies and synthetic biology.

IARPA has chosen the first set of teams to participate in the program. The contract awardees are comprised of nonprofit groups, companies and academic institutions. They are led by the following organizations:

  • Battelle Memorial Institute
  • Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
  • Exodigm Biosciences
  • Georgia Tech Research Institute
  • Ginkgo Bioworks
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • MRIGlobalQ
  • Quantitative BioSciences
  • Raytheon BBN
/
Rep. Rob Wittman Co-presents Bipartisan Bill to Create Joint Autonomy Office within Pentagon’s CDAO
Published on
Rep. Rob Wittman Co-presents Bipartisan Bill to Create Joint Autonomy Office within Pentagon’s CDAO

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said a joint autonomy office within the Department of Defense’s chief digital and artificial intelligence office could help DOD facilitate coordination and push the adoption of autonomous systems, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Wittman and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., introduced a bill that would create the office within CDAO to speed up the development and delivery of autonomous platforms in support of U.S. military operations.

Wittman said that office proposed in the Autonomous Systems Adoption and Policy Act would serve as a single venue for how the department directs its efforts and policy related to autonomous technologies.

“We’ve seen in the Pentagon where there has been a movement towards autonomy at a faster pace than has happened in the past. But as in, again, part of the element of any large organization and bureaucracy, it’s still very fragmented,” he said during his keynote speech at an event Wednesday.

“If we’re going to have unity and purpose, it needs to be in a single place… This bill allows that to happen,” Wittman added.

The JAO proposed in the bipartisan measure would offer a departmentwide framework to classify autonomous capabilities, an enterprise platform for all-domain autonomy testing and plans and methods to standardize resourcing, planning and integration efforts.

MITRE Recommends Agile System Engineering Approach to Pentagon’s JADC2 Initiative
Published on
MITRE Recommends Agile System Engineering Approach to Pentagon’s JADC2 Initiative

MITRE’s Center for Data-Driven Policy has released a new paper outlining a set of recommendations on how the Department of Defense could advance the deployment of its Joint All Domain Command and Control capabilities.

The research center recommended taking an agile, “bottom-up” approach to systems engineering to address user needs, ensure working products and rapidly iterate to fix issues, MITRE said Wednesday.

“Traditional systems engineering has been leading toward a top-down effort to implement JADC2 capabilities, whereas MITRE recommended a bottom-up approach of iterative experimentation to determine what really needs to be built,” the paper reads.

DOD must also use experimentation to understand gaps in a JADC2 system of systems and expand its use of operational analysis, the McLeaen, Virginia-based company believes.

The paper was authored by Jordan Fletcher, a department chief engineer at the MITRE National Security Engineering Center, and Eliahu Niewood, vice president of air and space forces for MITRE’s national security sector.

/
Army Contracting Command Signs Enterprise Agreement With Carahsoft for ServiceNow Licenses
Published on
Army Contracting Command Signs Enterprise Agreement With Carahsoft for ServiceNow Licenses

A team from Army Contracting Command-Rock Island’s Information Technology Directorate has formed an enterprise agreement with Carahsoft Technology to deliver a full suite of ServiceNow licenses to the U.S. Army.

The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract is valued at $432 million over five years and covers the provision of 1.2 million licenses for software and hardware asset management, information technology asset management, IT operations management and customer service management, the Army said Wednesday.

“This enterprise agreements consolidation of the existing licenses and purchase of additional licenses utilizes buying power to provide the Army with a discounted price and make the products and services available to all the Army,” said Ashley Smith, a contracting officer within ACC-RI’s Information Technology Directorate.

Without the enterprise agreement, the Army would have spent approximately $3.9 billion on ServiceNow product licenses over a five-year course.

“Spending $3.9 billion is unaffordable to the Army and never could have been procured on an individual or command basis, leaving the Army unable to utilize the full benefits of the ServiceNow suite of products,” Smith said.

/
Colin Kahl to Step Down as DOD Undersecretary for Policy; Lloyd Austin Quoted
Published on
Colin Kahl to Step Down as DOD Undersecretary for Policy; Lloyd Austin Quoted

Colin Kahl will step down from his role as undersecretary for policy at the Department of Defense in mid-July.

Lloyd Austin, defense secretary and 2023 Wash100 Award winner, said in a statement published Wednesday that under Kahl’s leadership, the department launched its National Defense Strategy and facilitated U.S. security assistance for Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion.

Kahl’s “strategic insights, deep understanding of international relations, and staunch commitment to strengthening our national defense have been crucial in shaping our policies, seizing geopolitical opportunities, and tackling a range of challenges around the world,” Austin said.

In April 2021, Kahl assumed his current position, serving as a principal adviser to the DOD secretary for defense and national security policy and overseeing efforts to facilitate defense cooperation and partnerships with allies.

He was co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation.

His previous government roles include deputy assistant to the president and national security adviser to the vice president and deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.

/
LinQuest Elevates Stephen Chambal to EVP & CGO
Published on
LinQuest Elevates Stephen Chambal to EVP & CGO

Stephen Chambal has been selected as executive vice president and chief growth officer of LinQuest Corporation.

In his new role, Chambal will oversee LinQuest’s business development team and guide corporate strategy with an emphasis on program development, the Herdon, Virginia-based company announced on Thursday.

“We are very excited to have Stephen lead our growth efforts. His exceptional skills and deep experience will be a catalyst to add even more momentum to our current growth trajectory,” said LinQuest President and CEO Greg Young.

As the organization’s business development lead, Chambal will drive expansion within defense and intelligence markets, including National Security Space and Department of the Air Force Operational Imperatives. The executive will also target broader client focus areas, such as systems development, digital transformation, integration and execution.

Before joining LinQuest, Chambal spent 24 years in the U.S. Air Force as a scientific analyst, where his work informed the decisions of USAF leaders. He later co-founded The Perduco Group, a defense and intelligence community-focused contractor where he served as CEO. In 2019, LinQuest acquired The Perduco Group and Chambal joined the former as senior vice president of strategic growth.

Chambal said that his time as part of the LinQuest team “has been a great experience” and highlighted the organization’s “rich and impressive history of innovation.”

“I’m excited about this opportunity to take our company forward in the service of our defense and intelligence community customers. We’re expecting continued rapid growth as we deliver high level solutions for our customers with a mission-first, people-always mindset,” he added.

Chambal’s appointment follows LinQuest’s promotion of Young to his current position in January. He succeeded Timothy Dills, who concluded his career after holding the chief executive role for almost four years.

/
Study: Government Workers Say In-Person Work Mandates Could Impact Job Satisfaction, Productivity
Published on
Study: Government Workers Say In-Person Work Mandates Could Impact Job Satisfaction, Productivity

A study from Eagle Hill Consulting has found that 59 percent of government employees in remote and hybrid work arrangements said their job satisfaction would decline if their agency required their personnel to return to in-person work and 44 percent said their productivity would drop with such a mandate.

Eagle Hill Consulting said Tuesday the findings are based on a survey of 10,013 federal, state and local government employees and other workers conducted by Ipsos between April 27 and May 1.

According to the study, 45 percent of respondents said they would consider looking for another job if their agency decides to reduce hybrid and remote work flexibility.

Some of the top concerns cited by the respondents with regard to in-person work are work/life balance, commute times, stress and higher costs.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they believe that employees who work in the office are more likely to be successful in their jobs than those who work remotely and 85 percent said they believe organizations could better manage the integration of a new member and teambuilding efforts in person.

“Government employees know that some work is best accomplished in-person, especially work that requires collaboration or is classified. But government employees don’t want in-person mandates because of concerns about work-life balance and commuting time,” said Melissa Jezior, president and CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting.

“This means government leaders will need to focus on flexibility – perhaps allowing remote work for individualized tasks, re-imagining traditional work schedules, and having collaborative time in the workplace,” added Jezior.

Idaho National Laboratory Releases Report on Microreactor Market Applicability
Published on
Idaho National Laboratory Releases Report on Microreactor Market Applicability

A new report from Idaho National Laboratory researchers has found that states with energy-intensive industries and nuclear-friendly regulations are suitable markets for microreactors.

The report, titled “Microreactor Applications in U.S. Markets,” revealed that Alaska and Wyoming are early adopters of advanced nuclear reactors for remote industrial applications like seafood processing and mineral mining, INL said Monday.

“Alaska and Wyoming have their own niche markets, but there is commonality in the remoteness of the applications, mobile uses for microreactors in mining, and energy use for refined products derived from mined sources,” said David Shropshire, a nuclear energy economist at INL.

Shropshire and Steven Aumeier, an INL senior adviser, collaborated with university partners to conduct a state-by-state evaluation of nuclear and carbon policies to assess the market opportunities for microreactors in states undergoing energy transitions.

According to the report, markets with low-carbon sources including wind, solar, geothermal and energy storage are favorable for microreactor deployment.

The report also noted that most microreactor designs could ship easily, making them available for transport to remote locations.

NSF, NOAA to Co-manage Cooperative Research Center for Climate & Catastrophe Modeling
Published on
NSF, NOAA to Co-manage Cooperative Research Center for Climate & Catastrophe Modeling

The National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have forged a partnership to create a research center for predicting and modeling the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

The agencies will co-manage a new industry-university cooperative research center to investigate and conduct risk assessments of catastrophic weather, which could also benefit and inform the insurance sector, NSF announced Tuesday.

NSF has been developing IUCRCs to cultivate scientific and technological breakthroughs through the alliance of government, industry and academia.

The latest IUCRC will study and work toward predicting shifts in the behavior of oceans, coasts, weather and climate. It will also be used to explore how human behavior affects and responds to climate change.

The facility will leverage the experiences of climate centers under NSF and NOAA.

“Combining climate and catastrophe models with the goal of producing better decision-making tools is a game changer for the insurance, reinsurance and mortgage industries,” NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick said. “Additionally, we need to not only develop the science and tools in this space, but also the workforce capacity to put knowledge into action.”

Biden Administration Authorizes $11B to Fund USDA’s Programs for Rural Clean Energy
Published on
Biden Administration Authorizes $11B to Fund USDA’s Programs for Rural Clean Energy

The Biden administration is investing a record $11 billion in two programs of the Department of Agriculture to promote clean energy adoption in rural communities in the United States.

The funds will be distributed as grants and loan opportunities to build renewable energy systems in rural America, USDA announced Tuesday.

To activate the investments, the agency will submit letters of interest for the Empowering Rural America and Powering Affordable Clean Energy programs.

The New ERA program will use $9.7 billion to finance rural electric cooperatives with renewable power, zero-emission or carbon capture system projects. Meanwhile, PACE will award $1 billion in partially forgivable loans to municipalities, cooperatives, tribal utilities and other energy providers to support their clean energy initiatives.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture stands ready to partner with municipalities, tribal entities, entrepreneurs, rural electric cooperatives and other utilities to see this transformative investment come to life and create new economic growth and healthier communities,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

1 … 591 592 593 594 595 … 2,658