AFRL, Air Force Research Laboratory - a United States Air Force defense laboratory responsible for discovering and developing and integrating fighting technologies for aerospace forces

AHPCRC, Army High Performance Computing Research Center - a United States defense laboratory to conduct reserch in high-performance computing for defense technology applications; a partnership of government and university and industry

Naval Research Laboratory, NRL - the United States Navy's defense laboratory that conducts basic and applied research for the Navy in a variety of scientific and technical disciplines

U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, US Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, USACIL - a defense laboratory of the Criminal Investigation Command; the Army's primary forensic laboratory in support of criminal intelligence

administrative body, administrative unit - a unit with administrative responsibilities

executive agency - an agency of the executive branch of government

FDA, Food and Drug Administration - a federal agency in the Department of Health and Human Services established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products

CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention - a federal agency in the Department of Health and Human Services; located in Atlanta; investigates and diagnoses and tries to control or prevent diseases (especially new and unusual diseases)

Counterterrorist Center, CTC - an agency that helps the Director of Central Intelligence coordinate counterterrorist efforts in order to preempt and disrupt and defeat terrorist activities at the earliest possible stage

Nonproliferation Center, NPC - an agency that serves as the focal point for all Intelligence Community activities related to nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their missile delivery systems

Bureau of the Census, Census Bureau - the bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census; provides demographic information and analyses about the population of the United States

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and other natural disasters related to weather

National Climatic Data Center, NCDC - the part of NOAA that maintains the world's largest active archive of weather data

National Weather Service - the federal agency in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that is responsible for weather forecast and preparation of weather maps

Technology Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that works with United States industries to promote competitiveness and maximize the impact of technology on economic growth

National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST - an agency in the Technology Administration that makes measurements and sets standards as needed by industry or government programs

National Technical Information Service, NTIS - an agency in the Technology Administration that is a primary resource for government-funded scientific and technical and engineering and business related information

DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the central research and development organization for the United States Department of Defense; responsible for developing new surveillance technologies since 9/11

Department of Defense Laboratory System, LABLINK - a defense laboratory that provides essential services in fundamental science for national security and environmental protection and provides technologies that contribute to industrial competitiveness

Department of Energy Intelligence, DOEI - an agency that collects political and economic and technical information about energy matters and makes the Department of Energy's technical and analytical expertise available to other members of the Intelligence Community

PHS, United States Public Health Service - an agency that serves as the office of Surgeon General; includes agencies whose mission is to improve the public health

National Institutes of Health, NIH - an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services whose mission is to employ science in the pursuit of knowledge to improve human health; is the principal biomedical research agency of the federal government

BJA, Bureau of Justice Assistance - the bureau in the Department of Justice that assists local criminal justice systems to reduce or prevent crime and violence and drug abuse

business, business concern, business organisation, business organization, concern - a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it; "he bought his brother's business"; "a small mom-and-pop business"; "a racially integrated business concern"

ad agency, advertising agency - an agency that designs advertisement to call public attention to its clients

credit bureau - a private firm that maintains consumer credit data files and provides credit information to authorized users for a fee

detective agency - an agency that makes inquiries for its clients

employment agency, employment office - an agency that finds people to fill particular jobs or finds jobs for unemployed people

commercial agency, mercantile agency - an organization that provides businesses with credit ratings of other firms; "Dun & Bradstreet is the largest mercantile agency in the United States"

news agency, news organisation, news organization, press agency, press association, wire service - an agency to collects news reports for newspapers and distributes it electronically

service agency, service bureau, service firm - a business that makes its facilities available to others for a fee; achieves economy of scale

travel agency - an agency that arranges personal travel

transfer agent - an agency (usually a bank) that is appointed by a corporation to keep records of its stock and bond owners and to resolve problems about certificates

activeness, activity, action - the state of being active; "his sphere of activity"; "he is out of action"

Frankenstein - an agency that escapes control and destroys its creator

state - the way something is with respect to its main attributes; "the current state of knowledge"; "his state of health"; "in a weak financial state"

free agency - (sports) the state of a professional athlete who is free to negotiate a contract to play for any team

legal representation - personal representation that has legal status; "an person who has been declared incompetent should have legal representation"

virus - a harmful or corrupting agency; "bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread"; "the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone"

effectuation, implementation - the act of implementing (providing a practical means for accomplishing something); carrying into effect

dint - interchangeable with `means' in the expression `by dint of'

escape - a means or way of escaping; "hard work was his escape from worry"; "they installed a second hatch as an escape"; "their escape route"

fast track - a rapid means of achieving a goal; "they saw independence as the fast track to democracy"; "he took a fast track to the top of the corporate ladder"; "the company went off the fast track when the stock market dropped"

instrument, tool - the means whereby some act is accomplished; "my greed was the instrument of my destruction"; "science has given us new tools to fight disease"

road - a way or means to achieve something; "the road to fame"

stepping stone - any means of advancement; "the job was just a stepping stone on his way to fame and riches"

expedient - a means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one

desperate measure - desperate actions taken as a means to an end; "he had to resort to desperate measures"

open sesame - any very successful means of achieving a result

salvation - a means of preserving from harm or unpleasantness; "tourism was their economic salvation"; "they turned to individualism as their salvation"

tooth - a means of enforcement; "the treaty had no teeth in it"

voice - a means or agency by which something is expressed or communicated; "the voice of the law"; "the Times is not the voice of New York"; "conservatism has many voices"

wings - a means of flight or ascent; "necessity lends wings to inspiration"