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OSTP Asks Agencies to Update Public Access Policies on Federally Funded Research; Alondra Nelson Quoted
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OSTP Asks Agencies to Update Public Access Policies on Federally Funded Research; Alondra Nelson Quoted

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released policy guidance urging federal agencies to update their policies no later than Dec. 31, 2025, to make results of federally funded research accessible to the public without an embargo.

OSTP is calling on agencies to update their public access policies to end the optional 12-month embargo that allows scientific publishers to impose a subscription-based paywall on federally funded research initiatives, precluding scientists from accessing research findings, the White House said Friday.

The memo recommends that agencies come up with transparent procedures to ensure that research and scientific integrity is maintained in public access policies and coordinate with OSTP to facilitate equitable delivery of results and data from federally funded research.

“When research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society,” said Alondra Nelson, head of OSTP. 

“The American people fund tens of billions of dollars of cutting-edge research annually. There should be no delay or barrier between the American public and the returns on their investments in research,” added Nelson.

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NAVWAR Tasks Viasat with Military Tactical Radio Delivery via $99M Order; Craig Miller Quoted
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NAVWAR Tasks Viasat with Military Tactical Radio Delivery via $99M Order; Craig Miller Quoted

The U.S. Naval Information Warfare Systems Command has awarded communications technology company Viasat a $99 million task order to provide radio system terminals that link military platforms in various environments.

The lot buy order, which comes as part of a $998 million U.S. Navy indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract first presented to Viasat in 2020, calls for the construction, upkeep and maintenance of multifunctional information distribution system joint tactical radio system terminals, the Carlsbad, California-based company said Monday.

Craig Miller, president of Viasat’s government systems unit, explained that the MIDS JTRS terminals are a key element of the Navy and other service branches’ strategy for transmitting data and information in combat, as well as contacting allies in a secure fashion.

“This award further indicates Viasat’s commitment and expertise providing Link 16 tactical communications solutions supporting US and Allied armed services…Viasat is proud to be a trusted supplier of this capability for today’s allied warfighting force,” Miller continued.

Working under this task order, Viasat will directly contribute to the widespread usage of MIDS JTRS terminals, which reportedly proliferate amongst the U.S. military and many allies overseas. It will put to the test Viasat’s ability to offer up large quantities of the radios, which are classified as Link 16 terminals and serve as the datalink bedrock on a line-of-sight network in a battlefield scenario across land, sea and air sources.

The MIDS JTRS terminals are also aimed to boost situational awareness for warfighters.

The new lot buy order, awarded by the MIDS Program Office of NAVWAR during the second quarter of Viasat’s fiscal year 2022, comes on the heels of a June contract bestowed to the company by the Department of Defense’s Information Warfare Research Project. Under the latter award, their team will investigate 5G networks’ potential for supporting expeditionary advanced base operations.

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Intel, Brookfield Establish Investment Strategy for Semiconductor Manufacturing; David Zinsner Quoted
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Intel, Brookfield Establish Investment Strategy for Semiconductor Manufacturing; David Zinsner Quoted

Intel Corporation, the multinational manufacturer of microprocessors, has teamed with Brookfield Asset Management to create an investment initiative for semiconductor production.

The Semiconductor Co-Investment Program puts forward a new financial model to accelerate semiconductor chip construction in Arizona-based facilities through a $30 million joint offering from Intel and Brookfield, the Santa Clara-headquartered company said Tuesday.

“This landmark arrangement is an important step forward for Intel’s Smart Capital approach and builds on the momentum from the recent passage of the CHIPS Act in the U.S.,” remarked David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel.

Zinsner also said SCIP is an untested strategy for the industry that is intended to enable flexibility in the company’s activities as well as promoting an equivocal, strong supply chain.

In this way, SCIP is an outgrowth of Intel’s Smart Capital endeavor, which seeks to make progress on its IDM 2.0 efforts in a financially stable and forthright manner. The companies’ joint funds will be applied toward Intel’s Chandler, Arizona Ocotillo campus, which is undergoing renovation and additions. Since Intel is pledging 51 percent of the $30 billion, it will continue to be the majority owner and operator of the pair of chip factories under construction.

Ultimately, the arrangement is projected to incur $15 billion worth of cumulative benefit for Intel’s adjusted free cash flow as well as accretive to its earnings.

According to Intel, the new agreement between Intel and Brookfield is seen as a demonstration of how private capital can be a “force multiplier for government incentives for the semiconductor manufacturing expansion” in the wake of the signing into law of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.

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SBA Announces New Chair, Members of National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board
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SBA Announces New Chair, Members of National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board

Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration, has announced the new chair and members of the national advisory board that provides advice and counsel to the SBA leadership on matters related to the Small Business Development Centers.

SBA said Friday the nine-member board has elected Lea Marquez Peterson, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, as the new board chair and Kristin Bailey, co-founder and CEO of woman-owned and operated business Sweets & Meats BBQ, as vice board chair.

The members are:

  • Adjoa Asamoah, founder and CEO of ABA Consulting LLC
  • Karen Barbour, president of The Barbour Group
  • Kristen Bailey, co-founder and CEO of Sweets & Meats BBQ
  • Louis Foreman, founder and CEO of Enventys
  • Joseph Guzman, director of the Economic Policy Institute
  • Benjamin Kwitek, president and CEO of InterForm, Inc.
  • Cabrera Morris, founder of BCM Consulting
  • Lea Marquez Peterson, member of the Arizona Corporation Commission
  • Senator Bruce Thompson, member of the Georgia State Senate

 

Each member of the national advisory board will serve for terms of three years.

The SBDC program provides counseling, training and technical assistance to small businesses, start-ups and pre-venture entrepreneurs.

“SBA’s Small Business Development Centers drive economic growth and open doors of opportunity in communities across America, especially in support of those small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic and growing climate disasters,” said Administrator Guzman. 

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DOE Awards $540M for Research Projects Into Clean Energy Technologies; Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE Awards $540M for Research Projects Into Clean Energy Technologies; Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy is investing more than $540 million in projects led by universities and national laboratories to conduct research on clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing.

DOE said Thursday researchers at 54 universities and 11 national laboratories will conduct research on technologies designed to reduce carbon emissions and transform energy production.

“The research projects announced today will strengthen the scientific foundations needed for the United States to maintain world leadership in clean energy innovation, from renewable power to carbon management,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

More than $400 million will be directed toward establishing and continuing 43 Energy Frontier Research Centers and a combined $140 million will be invested in 53 projects through the Chemical and Materials Sciences to Advance Clean Energy Technologies and Low-Carbon Manufacturing funding opportunity.

DOE selected the projects through a competitive peer review under two funding opportunities supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

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AFRL, Partners Send Spacecraft Flight Experiment to International Space Station
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AFRL, Partners Send Spacecraft Flight Experiment to International Space Station

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate has collaborated with NASA, the Georgia Tech Research Institute and DuPont de Nemours on a scientific cargo that launched aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.

AFRL said Thursday the Dragon cargo spacecraft delivered to the International Space Station the 16 Materials International Space Station Experiment that consists of brand-new spacecraft materials never before tested in space.

The MISSE-16 project has been installed into the ISS’ Materials International Space Station Flight Facility where it will remain for the next six months to collect data for analysis.

“A primary objective of AFRL is to use the real space weather exposure of the ISS to validate simulated space weather exposure of materials on the ground,” said Ryan Hoffmann, AFRL’s MISSE-16 mission manager.

Hoffmann said AFRL and GTRI will investigate selected materials that show potential aerospace, avionics and spacecraft applications in low-Earth orbit.

“The data collected will aid in the development of technology to image spacecraft through the atmosphere using ground-based telescopes and will help to track hazardous space debris that is typically very dim and difficult to keep track of,” said Elena Plis, a senior research engineer at the Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory/Georgia Tech Research Institute.

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Growing Urgency for Increased Cybersecurity in Healthcare
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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Growing Urgency for Increased Cybersecurity in Healthcare

Chuck Brooks, a highly esteemed cybersecurity leader as well as an influential member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program, recently published a feature exploring the impact that cyberattacks are having on the healthcare industry, especially following the recent attack on Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) 111 service.

In his most recent feature article with Cyber Theory, GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks shared that more than 45 million people who were affected by healthcare attacks as well as 93 percent of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach in the last three years.

Here’s an excerpt from the feature from GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks.

“The criminal hacker focus on healthcare is not surprising,” Brooks explained. “As medical care becomes more networked and interconnected via computers and devices, the digital landscape of health administrators, hospitals and patients, has become increasingly vulnerable.”

He emphasized that from a security perspective, the cybersecurity healthcare landscape has many facets to protect and revealed that technology, process and people are the cornerstones of the healthcare industry as it works to adapt and transform with the influence of cybersecurity.

In addition, Chuck Brooks also discussed the importance of healthcare records and how they’ve been specifically targeted by hackers. Brooks provided a breakdown of the recent compliance and security protocols such as HIPAA or Electronic Health Records (HER) to protect the confidentiality and availability of electronically protected health information.

During the feature, Brooks also highlighted the first step for healthcare organizations is to protect sensitive data by conducting regular security assessments and penetration tests, which also help to mitigate IT misconfigurations and bot threats and identify potential insider threats.

“What it really comes down to is that healthcare is a vital function for our well-being and mortality and is indispensable to both people and the economy,” he detailed. “Investments toward bolstering cybersecurity of all these health-related institutions under potential cyberattacks need to be considered urgent and increased significantly as we are all directly and indirectly at risk.”

You can read all the content from GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks through Executive Mosaic on GovCon Wire.com

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CISA Expands Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog With 10 New Entries
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CISA Expands Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog With 10 New Entries

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has expanded its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog with 10 new items that serve as a frequent malicious cyber actor’s attack vector and threaten the cybersecurity of the federal enterprise.

CISA said Thursday the catalog stemmed from a binding operational directive that seeks to lower the significant risk of known exploited vulnerabilities to federal information and information systems.

Some of the new additions to the catalog are dotCMS Unrestricted Upload of File Vulnerability, Apache APISIX Authentication Bypass Vulnerability, VMware Tanzu Spring Cloud Function Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, WebRTC Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability and Apple Sanbox Bypass Vulnerability. Recommended action is to apply updates per vendor instructions.

Federal civilian executive branch agencies are required to address the gaps by deadline to safeguard their networks. Although not required, all organizations are urged by CISA to prioritize timely remediation of vulnerabilities to reduce exposure to cyber attacks.

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Executive Order Establishes CHIPS and Science Act Implementation Priorities
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Executive Order Establishes CHIPS and Science Act Implementation Priorities

President Biden on Thursday signed an executive order to implement the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 that seeks to provide incentives for semiconductor production, research and development efforts.

The EO establishes a steering council and sets six key priorities to facilitate the implementation of the law across the federal government, the White House said Thursday.

National Economic Director Brian Deese will co-chair the CHIPS Implementation Steering Council with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Alondra Nelson, acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The six priorities outlined in the order are protecting taxpayer dollars by implementing compliance and accountability requirements; meeting economic and national security needs; ensuring long-term leadership in the sector; strengthening and expanding regional manufacturing and innovation clusters; catalyzing private sector investment; and generating benefits for a broad range of stakeholders and communities.

The EO will advance these priorities by building domestic capacity that reduces the country’s reliance on foreign production for mature and leading-edge microelectronics, creating a collaborative network for semiconductor innovation and research and shifting financial incentives to maximize private investments in chip production, workers and technologies.

The Department of Commerce unveiled a website, CHIPS.gov, to provide the agency with a channel to communicate related initiatives with the public.

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Stephen Forbes: DARPA’s Mandrake 2 Satellites to Demo Use of Light Beams for Space-to-Ground Communications
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Stephen Forbes: DARPA’s Mandrake 2 Satellites to Demo Use of Light Beams for Space-to-Ground Communications

Stephen Forbes, Blackjack program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said DARPA plans to test soon the capability of a pair of Mandrake 2 experimental satellites to use lasers to transmit data from space to ground, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

The announcement came after DARPA demonstrated in May the capability of the two satellites to perform space-to-space data transmission using optical intersatellite links.

Forbes told the publication that Mandrake is meant to “burn down risk as quickly as possible” for OISLs, including those for large constellations of low-Earth orbit small satellites being built by the Space Development Agency.

“Mandrake 2 is a risk reduction for the Blackjack and the proliferated LEO programs. Which is why SBA partnered with us — why this coalition of the willing came together — because to build that proliferated LEO architecture, we need to be able to share data across the satellites,” Forbes said.

“That fundamentally is foundational to what these architectures need to be successful,” he added.

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