News from Heartland

Precision Conservation Management (PCM) completed its first full growing season using Version 3 of the PCM Farmer Portal, marking the first full season in which the updated platform supported PCM's work from data collection through reporting. During the 2025 reporting season, Heartland Science and Technology also updated modeling and reporting workflows to align with evolving Cool Farm Tool and Cool Farm Platform requirements, strengthening PCM's ability to turn field-level information into useful reports for farmers with some of the latest modeling results available.

Heartland Science and Technology is supporting a Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) project that expands the Cyber Secure Dashboard for water treatment facilities through the addition of new water-sector profiles and requirements. This work brings the NIST Cybersecurity Framework into the water systems domain in a way that makes it easier, faster, and less costly for water system owners and operators to assess their cybersecurity posture and maintain adherence to cybersecurity requirements.

Heartland Science and Technology made the Cyber Secure Dashboard available through the DoD Iron Bank repository of tested and compliant software, allowing organizations to deploy the application on internal or cloud-based systems. This milestone expands access to a cyber risk management tool that helps organizations understand, manage, and maintain compliance with NIST and DoD cybersecurity standards, while also providing the added assurance of Iron Bank's rigorous security testing and ongoing vulnerability monitoring.

Heartland Science and Technology released Version 3 of the PCM Farmer Portal for Precision Conservation Management (PCM), expanding the platform that supports field-level data collection, analysis, modeling, and reporting. The updated portal improves data entry workflows and collects additional data needed for newer versions of models and to support PCM's expansion.

Over the course of several months, Heartland Science and Technology delivered a series of important Cyber Secure Dashboard updates for the PSAP effort while aligning the application with evolving NIST guidance. This work included updates supporting NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, and related NIST SP 800-171A assessment content, along with user experience improvements that more clearly identified unanswered assessment items and removed default selections. The project also added support for NIST SP 800-53A Rev. 5 while preserving Rev. 4, and finalized the PSAP profile and assessment updates.

Heartland Science and Technology partnered with Houston Engineering, Inc. to support the national expansion of the STAR (Saving Tomorrow's Agricultural Resources) web tool - a platform designed to help landowners implement conservation practices that keep their land productive and profitable.

As part of this effort, Heartland worked closely with STAR staff to standardize field forms across a wider range of cropping systems as the platform extended its reach into western states. This included supporting the integration of fallow and grazing forms, ensuring that producers engaged in these practices could participate fully in the platform and receive conservation recommendations relevant to their operations.

The field forms and scoring systems developed through this collaboration help connect producers with tailored conservation resources and support STAR affiliates in delivering those recommendations efficiently. Heartland is proud to have contributed to a platform that better reflects the diversity of American agriculture and helps landowners make conservation-minded decisions that support both their operations and the long-term health of the land.

Since 2020, Heartland Science and Technology has supported the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) in developing the measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform for ESMC's Eco-Harvest, a voluntary, next-generation national ecosystem services market program. Heartland Science and Technology developed ESMC's digital producer portal and MMRV which is the data collection platform supporting Eco-Harvest projects. In May 2023, ESMC and Heartland signed a follow-on contract to continue Heartland's data support activities.

Heartland, in collaboration with the Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, developed and integrated the S.T.A.R. program into the Precision Conservation Management Farmer Portal. S.T.A.R. is a free tool that assists farm operators and land owners evaluate their nutrient and soil loss management practices on individual fields. The purpose of the S.T.A.R. program is to motivate those making cropping decisions to use the "best management practices" that will ultimately meet the goals of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (PDF). Heartland's technology integration includes data collection via the Farmer Portal, and customized data analysis & reporting functionality.

As part of Heartland's technical and business support to Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), the team is developing a novice-focused, self-paced training module that can be completed by users in approximately 30 – 45 minutes. The training introduces students to the NIST Cyber Security Framework, related cybersecurity standards and compliance objectives through a series of informative slides and implementation best practice case studies. It is designed to prepare federal workforce and students of two and four-year post-secondary institutions for compliance requirements associated with cybersecurity career fields.

Heartland provides technical and business support to the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) – a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. As part of the University of Illinois, CIRI conducts research and education that enhances the resiliency of the nation's critical infrastructures and the businesses and public entities that own and operate those assets and systems.

The Cyber Secure Dashboard is an established tool for conducting assessments, planning work tasks required for compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), the National Institute of Standards Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), and the NIST 800-171 standards. CIRI and Heartland are developing the Dashboard with funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Manufacturing times Digital (MxD) in Chicago, IL.

The CyberTalent Bridge is a tool under development for organizations to better understand the cybersecurity talent available in their workforce, and how workers can be assigned, trained, and hired to reduce cybersecurity risk. The CyberTalent Bridge is being developed by CIRI and 2wav with funding from DHS.

Heartland is working to merge the capabilities of Cyber Secure Dashboard and the CyberTalent Bridge in a seamlessly combined user experience. This work will integrate the products, creating a toolset which offers unmatched capabilities for small to medium sized enterprises to plan required cybersecurity tasks, choose the most effective workforce to be assigned to those tasks, understand the skills gaps within the organization, and plan for appropriate workforce development and recruitment.

Heartland Science and Technology was awarded a contract by Manufacturing times Digital (MxD) to implement supply chain functionality to the Cyber Secure Dashboard tool. The Dashboard is an ongoing development collaboration with the University of Illinois, the Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute, the Information Trust Institute at the University of Illinois, MxD, and D.C. based IT and cybersecurity consulting firm Iviry. The new functionality significantly evolves the Dashboard from meeting the needs of small and mid-sized manufacturers into a fully functional SaaS business collaboration that addresses cybersecurity lifecycle management and provides critical insights into the cyber security status of entire supply chains.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and managers. The Heartland/NRCS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishes the framework for a relationship in support of the development, testing, use, deployment, and maintenance of NRCS conservation models/tools. Heartland will integrate these models/tools with the PCM Farmer Portal – which will result in significant improvements to the Farmer Portal's sustainability metrics.

Just after rolling out Heartland's first major Cyber Secure Dashboard update, Heartland announced a new upgrade to the Dashboard tool – the NIST Manufacturing Profile View. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute, the new Cyber Secure Dashboard Manufacturing Profile View gives manufacturers the ability to view their cybersecurity posture through the lens of the new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Profile. The NIST Manufacturing Profile is part of the updated and evolving NIST framework – a federally backed effort aimed at further extending NIST's voluntary guidance to organizations on reducing cybersecurity risks. Recognizing that cybersecurity risks and recommendations will be unique for every major industry, NIST is in the process of developing and rolling out customized "Profiles" for other major industries as well. The Dashboard greatly simplifies the process of managing compliance with these complex federal requirements. It helps manufacturers understand, achieve, and maintain compliance – with a forward-leaning approach toward satisfying the continuing evolution.