The National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced plans to award individual grants worth up to $100,000 to help small businesses research and develop technology platforms.

NIST said Thursday the 2017 Small Business Innovation Research initiative seeks applications in 24 technology areas that are classified under collaboration and partnership; data and modeling; precision measurements; and systems.

The agency awarded R&D grants worth a total of $3.3 million to 19 small businesses as part of the 2016 SBIR program.

Small businesses can submit applications for the 2017 SBIR until March 30.

The U.S. Air Force has exercised the option to purchase a site in the city of St. Louis for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new west headquarters.

NGA said Friday it expects the property acquisition for the Next NGA West campus, which will be based at the corner of north Jefferson and Cass avenues, to occur by the end of fiscal year 2017.

The move comes six months after NGA Director Robert Cardillo signed a record of decision that indicates the selection of a site in St. Louis for the new west HQ campus.

The agency noted it expects to occupy the new facility by 2022.

The White House has released new guidance that outlines changes designed to help federal agencies streamline the environmental assessment and authorization process for federal infrastructure projects in compliance with Title 41 provisions of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

A White House blog post published Friday says the proposed changes in the guidance seek to increase accountability and transparency in the federal environmental evaluation and permitting process, promote coordination of agencies’ environmental review schedules and publication of project-specific permitting tables in an effort to increase predictability.

Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, co-wrote the post with Christy Goldfuss, managing director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The document also unveils a framework that aims to monitor the community and environmental outcomes of covered federal infrastructure projects on the Permitting Dashboard.

The Permitting Dashboard is an online platform that works to help federal, state and local agencies, companies and the public to track the permitting and review process for infrastructure projects.

The Department of Homeland Security continues to provide its cyber threat mitigation platform to all civilian cabinet-level departments and 45 federal department and agencies that represent 93 percent of the executive branch’s civilian workforce.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote in a blog post published Wednesday DHS continues to work with remaining department and agencies that have not yet employed the Einstein 3A platform and other cybersecurity protection systems.

The report noted that the platform has been deployed on networks of agencies such as the Commerce Department, Energy Department, DHS, Interior Department, Justice Department, Labor Department, State Department, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management.

“We have worked aggressively to enhance the cyber security of federal civilian executive branch networks,” said Johnson.

Johnson added E3A has blocked more than 1 million potential cyber threats on covered networks and the platform will also look to serve as a basis for future technology designed to disrupt potential cyber attackers.

The Office of Personnel Management has issued management tools in the form of instructive materials to help federal government agencies maximize employee performance and address cases of personnel misconduct.

Beth Cobert, acting OPM director, sent a letter Wednesday to agency chief human capital officers and human resources directors along with the “Managing Federal Employees’ Performance Issues or Misconduct” attachment to highlight tools available to managers and supervisors that oversee such personnel management tasks.

“Implementation challenges and misconceptions related to addressing employee performance and conduct get in the way of taking swift and appropriate action to manage individuals whose performance or conduct detracts from the accomplishment of an agency’s mission,” said Cobert.

Cobert added failure to address such employee performance or misconduct concerns can potentially impact the morale and productivity of other employees that look to help an agency meet its goals.

The guidance tool covers actions that can be taken to avoid performance or conduct issues, management of employee performance, suspensions, excused absences, performance deficiencies in the Senior Executive Service and disciplinary actions.

NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot will replace Charles Bolden as the space agency’s acting administrator after the latter’s tenure ends on Jan. 20, SpacePolicyOnline.com reported Thursday.

Marcia Smith writes Bolden said at a town hall meeting with NASA employees that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team announced Lightfoot’s new role and requested David Radzanowski to temporarily stay at the agency as chief financial officer.

The report said Lightfoot will lead NASA until a permanent replacement is named.

The 28-year agency veteran previously served as director of Marshall Space Flight Center, deputy director of the Marshall Center and manager of Marshall’s space shuttle propulsion office.

He also worked as assistant associate administrator for the Space Shuttle Program within NASA’s office of space operations; director of Stennis Space Center’s propulsion test directorate; and deputy director of the SSC organization.

Lightfoot started his NASA career as a test engineer and program manager for the space shuttle main engine technology test bed program and the Russian RD-180 engine testing program for the Atlas launch vehicle.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has written a farewell letter expressing his gratitude for approximately 90,000 Agriculture Department employees on his last day at USDA.

Vilsack said Friday USDA employees work to protect U.S. citizens from hazardous foods and forest fires; provide food for “struggling” families; foster the creation of new businesses; encourage support for local products; and address invasive species and diseases.

Vilsack was appointed as agriculture secretary in 2009 and previously served as governor of Iowa.

He also served as state senator and mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.