The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a component of the Department of Defense that seeks to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. DARPA works with innovators inside and outside the government to develop and deliver technology such as stealth aircraft, miniaturized GPS, and self-driving vehicles for warfighters and modern civilian society.
Recently, DARPA pre-released five Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer funding opportunities. These pre-solicitations are “out of cycle” with the DoD SBIR/STTR broad agency announcements.
DARPA will answer technical questions regarding research objectives and awards specific to these opportunities. Email addresses for each topic area can be found in the associated pre-solicitations. DARPA will post a consolidated FAQ document that can be accessed here with topic-specific questions under each respective topic summary.
Instructions for preparing the technical proposal and cost volume can be found in the second paragraph of each pre-solicitation.
Prospective DAPRA SBIR/STTR applicants who are either Arkansas-based or have a project partner from Arkansas are encouraged to contact Rebecca Todd for assistance at 501.683.7717 or rctodd@ualr.edu.
DARPA’s pre-solicitations are listed below and are hyperlinked to the topic titles. The full solicitations will be released on Sept. 27 and close on Oct. 28.
Program Type: SBIR Direct to Phase II only
Technology Areas: Sensors, Ground and Sea Vehicles
Award size: $1.25M total (Up to $500,000 for a 12-month base period and a 9-month option period not to exceed a cost of $500,000)
Summary: DARPA invites submissions of innovative research concepts in the technical domain(s) of sensors, machine learning, and computer vision. In particular, DARPA is interested in understanding the feasibility of Holistic Object Tracking.
2) Patterned, Responsive Cellular Therapies Using Novel Mammalian Cellular Regulator Systems
Program Type: STTR Phase I
Technology Area: Biomedical
Award size: $225,000 for 12-months
Summary: DARPA is interested in understanding the feasibility of Patterned, Responsive Cellular Therapies Using Novel Mammalian Cellular Regulator Systems.
3) Sparse Information Orbit Estimation for Proliferated LEO
Technology Areas: Sensor, Space Platforms
Program Type: STTR Phase I
Award size: $225,000 for 9 months
Summary: DARPA is interested in understanding the feasibility of Sparse Information Orbit Estimation for Proliferated LEO.
4) Self-Reconfigurable Modular Ground Robots
Technology Areas: Ground and Sea Vehicles
Program Type: STTR Phase I
Award Size: $225,000 for 12 months
Summary: DARPA is interested in understanding the feasibility of small ground robots that can autonomously reconfigure without human intervention to enable operation in unknown, complex environments in support of off-road delivery tasks.
5) Fabrication and Testing of Large Aperture Achromatic Visible Metalens for Imaging Applications
Technology Areas: Materials/Processes, Sensor
Program Type: STTR Phase I
Award Size: $225,000 for six months
Summary: This opportunity invites submissions of innovative research concepts in the technical domain(s) of metamaterial lenses, or “metalenses,” either standalone, or integrated with bulk optics to reduce size, weight, and power (SWaP) of large optical systems.