HHS/NIH - Behavior Maintenance Approaches Support - MRAS

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to explore potential solutions for enhancing cyber and network training environments. The primary objective is to facilitate hands-on training for network administrators and maintainers within an operationally realistic cloud-based environment. This endeavor aims to augment formal school training with innovative simulations, thereby improving the development, testing, and evaluation of network maintenance and operations.

Specifically, the Air Force's 336th Training Squadron (TRS) seeks a cloud-based development environment tailored for its technical training courses. This environment will support up to 225 students and 15 instructors, providing a virtual platform where Air Force enlisted Cyber Systems Operations students can practice configuring and maintaining systems they will encounter in the field. The goal is to establish a virtual software environment that mirrors real-world conditions for academic purposes.

The envisioned cloud-based training environment must be accessible via government systems while adhering to the Risk Management Framework standards. Students will engage in various activities such as implementing virtualization through hypervisors, configuring enterprise services like Active Directory, managing server roles including DNS and DHCP, executing basic scripting using Notepad, utilizing command-line programs like PowerShell, managing user accounts through GUI processes, and performing system hardening activities using Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs). These exercises are designed to provide comprehensive practical experience in maintaining secure and efficient network operations.

In parallel with this initiative, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is conducting a scoping review on behavior maintenance approaches aimed at improving health outcomes. Despite extensive research efforts over decades, long-term intervention strategies for maintaining healthy behaviors remain limited. This review seeks to identify mechanisms of action that influence behavior maintenance across various health contexts. By understanding these mechanisms and their pathways of implementation, NIH aims to lay the groundwork for future research focused on novel intervention strategies that support sustained healthy behaviors.