Sponsor Application Guidance

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

DARPA’s research portfolio is managed by six technical offices charged with developing breakthrough technologies and two additional offices that manage special projects and the transition of DARPA-funded technologies into Department of Defense capabilities. The Agency benefits from contributions by a number of support offices:

DARPA today is focusing its strategic investments in four main areas:

Rethink Complex Military Systems: To help enable faster development and integration of breakthrough military capabilities in today’s rapidly shifting landscape, DARPA is working to make weapons systems more modular and easily upgraded and improved; assure superiority in the air, maritime, ground, space and cyber domains; improve position, navigation and timing (PNT) without depending on the satellite-based Global Positioning System; and augment defenses against terrorism.

Master the Information Explosion: DARPA is developing novel approaches to deriving insights from massive datasets, with powerful big-data tools. The Agency is also developing technologies to ensure that the data and systems with which critical decisions are made are trustworthy, such as automated cyber defense capabilities and methods to create fundamentally more secure systems. And DARPA is addressing the growing need to ensure privacy at various levels of need without losing the national security value that comes from appropriate access to networked data.

Harness Biology as Technology: To leverage recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, immunology, genetics and related fields, DARPA in 2014 created its Biological Technologies Office, which has enabled a new level of momentum for the Agency’s portfolio of innovative, bio-based programs. DARPA’s work in this area includes programs to accelerate progress in synthetic biology, outpace the spread of infectious diseases and master new neurotechnologies.

Expand the Technological Frontier: DARPA’s core work has always involved overcoming seemingly insurmountable physics and engineering barriers and, once showing those daunting problems to be tractable after all, applying new capabilities made possible by these breakthroughs directly to national security needs. Maintaining momentum in this essential specialty, DARPA is working to achieve new capabilities by applying deep mathematics; inventing new chemistries, processes and materials; and harnessing quantum physics.

How to Apply

Proposals for where the anticipated award vehicle is a Grant must be submitted via Grants.Gov

To ensure proper submission of the proposal the individual preparing the proposal must read BAA instructions.

Proposals not meeting the format described in the BAA may not be reviewed by DARPA.

Links to DARPA Solicitations are listed below:

• DARPA Solicitations
•  Fed Biz Ops
• Grants.Gov

Proposals sent in response to DARPA Announcements should be submitted through T-FIMS. See https://www.tfims.darpa.mil/baa/ for more information on how to request an account, upload proposals, and use the T-FIMS tool. Because proposers using T-FIMS may encounter heavy traffic on the web server and T-FIMS requires a registration and certificate installation for all proposers, proposers should not wait until the day the proposal is due to create an account in T-FIMS and submit the proposal. All proposers using T-FIMS must also encrypt the proposal, as per the instructions below.

All proposals submitted electronically to T-FIMS must be encrypted using WinZip or PKZip with 256-bit AES encryption. Only one zipped/encrypted file will be accepted per proposal and proposals not zipped/encrypted will be rejected by DARPA. An encryption password form must be completed and emailed to DARPA (refer to the BAA for this email address) at the time of proposal submission. See the encryption password form.

Please Note: Check Eligibility Criteria

Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions: (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector; and (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter on official letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and their compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and conditions. This information is required for FFRDCs proposing to be prime contractors or subawardees. Government entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide written documentation citing the specific statutory authority and contractual authority, if relevant, establishing their ability to propose to Government solicitations. At the present time, DARPA does not consider 15 U.S.C. § 3710a to be sufficient legal authority to show eligibility. While 10 U.S.C.§ 2539b may be the appropriate statutory starting point for some entities, specific supporting regulatory guidance, together with evidence of agency approval, will still be required to fully establish eligibility. DARPA will consider FFRDC and Government entity eligibility submissions on a case-by-case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the proposer.

A letter of authorization from the DOE Brookhaven Site office is necessary prior to any application. Please contact The Proposal Center or The Growth Office for assistance in obtaining this letter and for any questions on eligibility.

Principal Investigator (PI) Responsibilities

Please contact the Proposal Center or the Growth Office to check your eligibility and provide forms and documentation you need in order to proceed. Also, please read and review the funding opportunity in its entirety to get a clear understanding of all the requirements needed for a compliant proposal submission.