The Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network has upgraded the high-speed network infrastructure that serves DOE national laboratories, scientists and researchers nationwide.

ESnet6 boosts the network’s bandwidth to more than 46 terabits per second to speed up the processing, sharing and visualization of research data from experiments, modeling and simulations, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said Tuesday.

The network also includes new capabilities including an expanded fiber optic backbone, network automation platform, network security features and real-time telemetry.

“With ESnet6, DOE researchers are equipped with the most sophisticated technology to help tackle the grand challenges we face today in areas like climate science, clean energy, semiconductor production, microelectronics, the discovery of quantum information science, and more,” said Barbara Helland, associate director of the DOE Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.

DOE officially unveiled ESnet6 during an event attended by department officials, Berkeley Lab leaders and representatives from local, state and federal government agencies. 

During the event, DOE demonstrated the ability of ESnet6’s new automation platform to configure network paths to support the transfer of massive datasets across the country in less than two minutes.

The General Services Administration and the Department of Energy are seeking input from the private sector on clean energy technologies designed to help reduce commercial buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen grid resilience.

In a request for information, the agencies said they are looking for emerging technologies that could reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, generate and store clean energy, enable building electrification and improve operating efficiency, GSA said Tuesday.

The technologies must be commercially available and ready for integration into operational buildings. They will be evaluated for inclusion in the GSA Green Proving Ground (GPG)
program or DOE-facilitated voluntary partnership programs.

The RFI follows the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act that allocates $3.3 billion for the integration of low-carbon materials and sustainable technologies into federal buildings.

“The Inflation Reduction Act will provide even more opportunities for us to transform federal buildings into high-performing, high-tech testbeds for clean energy innovation,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan.

Responses are due Dec. 9.

Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said the service plans to launch several initiatives that seek to incorporate into its systems technologies developed by small businesses and one of these is Project Vista, which intends to help small companies get through the “valley of death,” Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“We felt that the Army needed to do something in addition to help bridge that valley of death, because often, we’ve talked about it only in the context of direct contract awards to small business,” Camarillo told FNN in an interview.

“But that neglects the fact that many of the opportunities available to small businesses are to team with integrators that can marshal together the innovation and the technology that our small businesses provide into a capability that can be used by our warfighter,” he added.

With Project Vista, the Army plans to give higher technical ratings to offerors whose proposals include technologies from companies that have been funded through Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs as part of the source selection process.

Camarillo also discussed the service’s plans to launch the Catalyst program, which will offer direct investment to tech platforms that have “fallen through the cracks” and establish an “IP cell” of experts that will advise procurement officials on how to structure intellectual property agreements with industry.

The State Department has announced a new initiative between the U.S. and the U.K. governments to strengthen cooperation on data transfer and technology development.

Ned Price, spokesperson for the State Department, said in a statement published Friday that the U.S.-U.K. Comprehensive Dialogue on Technology and Data initiative builds on a commitment made in 2021 to establish a landmark bilateral Technology Partnership.

Price said the meeting of senior-level representatives from the U.S. and U.K. in 2023 will focus on three key areas, which are data, critical and emerging technologies and secure and resilient digital infrastructure.

Officials from the departments of State and Commerce and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will attend the annual dialogue session.

Price said the U.S.-U.K. Technology Partnership has pave the way for the governments to expand their collaboration on shared priorities including the development of privacy-enhancing technologies, responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence and the diversification of the telecommunication supply chain.