B24IC_TechnicalDescriptionInterests_external_20220516_C.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED

UNCLASSIFIED Page 1 of 3

IARPA Biointelligence and Biosecurity Research Topics of Interest The below information identifies research topics of interest to IARPA and does not represent a call or solicitation for proposals. This release is being used to inform the wider community of potential interests for future research topics.

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) invests in high-risk/high-payoff research programs that have the potential to provide our nation with an overwhelming intelligence advantage. IARPA seeks to develop new capabilities, matching the wider synthetic biology and biotechnology fields, ensuring the Intelligence Community’s (IC’s) capability to meet the biointelligence and biosecurity threats of the 21st century. This includes developing new ways to collect, detect, analyze, and prevent traditional biothreats while also addressing the promise and perils associated with the growing fields of biotechnology and synthetic biology.

To address these challenges, the IC seeks to advance research across multiple sub-disciplines of biology.

In recent decades, the rise of synthetic biology has corresponded with critical advances in biology research. From polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the 1980s to next generation sequencing (NGS) in the late 90s to numerous mechanisms for genetic engineering enabling a variety of engineered organisms in the past decade, the branches of synthetic biology and enabling biotechnologies have advanced at a prodigious rate. The IC, and IARPA specifically, has pursued numerous research programs to advance security interests, but the needs of the IC require rapid advancement of numerous research topics to meet and leverage the advances the many biological disciplines have brought into reality in the past decades. These needs align with developing new methods for countering traditional biothreats of concern while also looking towards the future where bio-focused capabilities may enable or support IC relevant capabilities.

In particular, IARPA seeks novel research ideas from multidisciplinary teams pursuing advanced research topics capable of supporting the below interests:

• Biointelligence – Instruments, knowledge, and/or methods enhancing the IC’s capability to counter inappropriate use of biological sciences or leverage advancements derived from the biological sciences capable of advancing the IC’s ability to collect, analyze, characterize, secure, and utilize information related to threats to our nation; and

• Biosecurity – Methods for ensuring the security of instruments, knowledge, environments, or capabilities aligned with biological research or advancements which have the potential to cause harm or detrimentally impact other organisms, materials, or infrastructure.

These technologies align well with needs of the intelligence and national security communities and are, therefore, under the purview of IARPA’s research mission. Successful technology solutions will require creative, multidisciplinary methods, paradigm changing thinking, and transformative approaches. Interest focuses on research with the ability to revolutionize capabilities and instruments or demonstrate that revolutionary change is possible in the coming decade. Critical interests align with technologies to improve collections, analysis, characterization, and mission specific capabilities. Multidisciplinary or convergent approaches derived from other technical fields and disciplines are welcome and encouraged.

UNCLASSIFIED Page 2 of 3

Description of Topics and Areas of Interest

A. Biointelligence

• Methods and approaches for enabling attribution and/or origination of biological material, including organisms, that are not based purely upon individual databases, plasmid-focused analytics, isotopic ratios, or bioinformatics data;

• Platform-based, highly sensitive, target agnostic or multiplexable plug-and-play target-specific instrumentation for detection of biomolecules from complex samples or environments;

• Approaches for building biological systems capable of autonomous and consistent/repeatable responses and reporting outputs following non-Boolean logic based upon external stimuli to include advances in biocomputing, bioelectronics, and biological/biomolecule neural networks;

• Advanced approaches for loss-less, shelf-stable collection, separation, and/or sterilization of diverse biomolecules from complex environments (soil, water, and/or air);

• Approaches for integrating structured and unstructured, multi-modal data types, beyond bioinformatically derived, to identify poorly or under reported health incidents or changes in health status.

B. Biosecurity

• Methods for assuring digital and physical security associated with infrastructure, instrumentation, databases, and data associated with synthetic biology, biological samples, and biotechnologies from direct, indirect, remote, and stand-off analysis or intrusion;

• Methods for detecting and/or characterizing biological targets of interest to include venoms, toxins, community/environmental metabolomics, antibody paratopes (linear and conformational), non-canonical/synthetic biomolecules, and properties/effects of encapsulation;

• Methods and instruments for near and remote, >1 meter, passive detection or evaluation of health-status or health anomalies;

• Methods for reducing storage requirements, enabling improved security and analysis of large or mixed ‘omics datatypes, and improving transfer of pre-processed ‘omics data at scale from the point of generation;

• Methods for integrating and analyzing multi-modal data or materials, informing towards improved understanding and prediction, in near real-time, of research activities, timelines, objectives.

The following topics are not currently of interest to IARPA under this document release:

research focused purely on improving biosafety in the laboratory or the field; research focused on systems integration of existing approaches or instruments; research focused entirely on COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2; research focused on developing or improving medical countermeasures or therapeutics; research focused entirely on improving size, weight, or power requirements associated with existing instrumentation; research focused on topics at a

UNCLASSIFIED Page 3 of 3 technology readiness level of 4 or above; and/or research which are resubmissions of work already awarded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, or other federal agencies.