Defense Technical Information Center
Abstract
DTIC is responsible for developing, coordinating and enabling a strong scientific and technical information (STINFO) program for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) and the DoD scientific and technical (S&T) enterprise. In this role, DTIC sets policy for scientific and technical information (STI) exchanges for the research and engineering (R&E) community. DTIC’s aim is to maximize the availability and use of technical information and products resulting from Defense-funded technical activities while ensuring restrictions to safeguard national security, export control, and intellectual property rights. Recognizing the common elements across budget justification documents, progress reports, completed work reports, studies, and journal articles, DTIC is mapping relationships to enable users to access the life cycle of research projects from planning to final results. DTIC employs information technology to verify and validate information submitted and improve user confidence in DoD research documentation. DTIC is leading the Department’s efforts to implement public access to published journal articles, and digital data from research funded by taxpayers. In this role, DTIC is actively working with partners across the Services, components, other federal agencies and publishers. These ongoing efforts directly complement and support the Department’s objectives associated with Citizen Science. Consistent with the Administration’s (Office of Management and Budget) emphasis for open standards and machine readable formats, DTIC initiated the transition from paper and Portable Document Format (PDF) based information to Web Service Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard data submission and machine readable delivery. DTIC partnered with the OSD Comptroller to collect investment account budget justification documentation in XML and embed this XML in PDF for justification books delivered to Congress. DTIC employed this same technology in collecting S&T progress reports from the Services and Agencies, and Independent Research and Development (IR&D) data from industry. DTIC is planning the migration of its completed technical reports collection to the same open standards, i.e., machine readable formats. Through the use of commercial search technology, DTIC provides search capability that links its knowledge of the DoD domain and metadata to support both text searches and data mining. DTIC continually works to enable additional features within our search capabilities and from commercial partners to improve information discovery and relevance. DoD conducts science and technology research via the following means: 60+ labs, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), DTIC’s Information Analysis Centers (IACs), and other contracts and grants. Spanning over a dozen distinct priority area communities of interest, the results of this work are available through DTIC’s web-based R&E Gateway. To protect this information, DTIC regulates access through a database of registered users. In addition, DTIC uses commercial software in compliance with DoD Identity Management Standards to provide instant authenticated access to users of the DoD Common Access Card (CAC)/Federal Government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, industry PIV-I cards or External Certificate Authority (ECA). DTIC’s unclassified assets, tools and community interaction capabilities foster innovation, competition and identification of solutions in an access-controlled environment. Focus on User Communities and Distribution Points: DTIC supports user communities on the network where they work, i.e., NIPRNet, SIPRNet and public internet, and uniquely provides access controls within unclassified and classified material to protect intellectual property in our search, distribution, and collaboration tools. - DoD’s RDT&E Enterprise: As a Field Activity to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), DTIC’s priority is the RDT&E enterprise, hosting information assets and tools on the NIPRNet (the primary network for the community). During FY 2019, DTIC is slated to realign under the DoD Chief Management Officer (CMO). - Warfighter: Improving coordination between the acquisition enterprise and warfighter communities, DTIC hosts a subset of information assets and tools on the SIPRNet. DTIC is working to expand the availability of science and technology (S&T) information, to include Independent Research and Development (IR&D), on the SIPRNet. DTIC is continuing its efforts to establish parity of information and capabilities on applications hosted on both NIPRNet and SIPRNet platforms. - Industry, Academia, and Citizen Science via Public Internet: Engaging industry outside the NIPRNet firewall to support acquisition improvement initiatives and encourage the introduction of innovation, DTIC hosts unclassified public information and tools accessible to all users on the Internet. DTIC provides public access to DoD-funded journal articles and research data, and increases outreach to industry through DTIC’s Defense Innovation Marketplace. The Public Access initiative adds importance to the public distribution point, to encourage technology transfer of basic and public research to the private sector, and to give an economic boost to small businesses that can use that data to provide new applications to consumers. Moreover, DTIC activities promote citizen science. Summary. DTIC protects and preserves DoD’s multi-billion dollar investment in research, which empowers the acquisition enterprise through innovative tools, information systems, and decision support capabilities. The efficiency benefits can be enormous. Each 1 percent increase in the reuse of S&T efforts produces over $100 Million in savings that can be redirected. Those savings come from elimination of inefficient redundancy (and unnecessary delays), increased community interaction, and ultimately, a more capable military. DTIC is uniquely positioned to support and to ensure the value of DoD’s R&D portfolio is fully realized.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Source ID
- 001_0605801KA_6_0400_PB_2020
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