DARPA-SN-27-05.pdf

SPECIAL NOTICE DARPA-SN-27-05

Unison Proposers Day EVENT DATE: 5 November 2026 9:00AM- 2:00 PM EST REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 29 October 2026 5:00 PM EDT REGISTRATION WEBSITE: https://creative.spa.com/darpa/sto/unison/pd/ TECHNICAL POC: Dr. Tamer Refaei, STO Program Manager E-MAIL: Unison@darpa.mil

PROPOSERS DAY:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) will host a Proposers Day in support of DARPA-PS-27-06, Unison program, on 5 November 2026 at the System Planning and Analysis Research Collaboration Center (SPARCC), 4075 Wilson Blvd., Suite 201 from 9:00AM-2:00 PM EST. The purpose of this conference is to provide information on the Unison program; promote additional discussion on this topic; address questions from potential proposers; and provide a forum for potential proposers to meet potential teaming partners.

A Unison program solicitation is expected to be published prior to the Proposers Day meeting to the SAM.gov website. Interested proposers are asked to monitor the registration website for any potential changes to the event date as a result.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE AND DESCRIPTION: The objective of the Unison program is to develop and evaluate collaborative-autonomy approaches that jointly adapt team decision-making and communications during mission execution. Unison will investigate ways to improve how autonomous teams modify tactics, behaviors, coordination relationships, and information exchange as mission complexity and operational variability increase and communications become extremely constrained and/or degraded.

The core hypothesis of Unison is that a unified execution-time reasoning approach to action planning and communications planning can make collaborative autonomy more effective, scalable, and resilient in dynamic, uncertain, and resource-constrained environments. Unison seeks to preserve mission performance while reducing communication dependence and bounding the reasoning burden imposed on individual agents.

The Unison program is organized into two technical areas (TAs): TA-1, Joint Co-Adaptation; and TA-2, Modeling and Simulation Environment. Both TAs support the program objective of co-adaptation of autonomy and communications.

TA-1’s overall goal is to develop software for autonomous teams to make coordinated decisions that achieve mission objectives as mission complexity and operational variability increase, while keeping per-agent reasoning and communications demand within specified bounds.

TA-2’s core goal is to develop a statistically robust, faster-than-real-time modeling and simulation environment capable of training and evaluating TA-1 solutions at operationally relevant scales.

This program will be unclassified; however, prime contractors must be able to access and store Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

REGISTRATION INFORMATION: DARPA hosts Proposers Days to promote teaming arrangements among researchers; provide potential performers with information on whether and how they might respond to the Government’s research and development solicitations; and to increase efficiency in proposal preparation and evaluation. Therefore, Proposers Days are open only to registered potential proposers.

Participants must register no later than (NLT) 29 October 2026 at 05:00 PM EDT at the following website: https://creative.spa.com/darpa/sto/unison/pd/.

Due to space limitations at the conference facility, attendance will be limited to the first 90 registrants, and no more than two representatives per organization. Directions to the facility and other materials are also available on the website. There is no registration fee to attend this conference.

The Unison Proposers Day may include Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). All attendees must be either U.S. Citizens or U.S. Persons. It is important to understand that a non- U.S. citizen may either be a foreign person or a U.S. person.

• A foreign person is any person who is not a lawful permanent resident of the United States, for example, students or employees legally in the U.S. with a valid student or work visa. Foreign persons are not allowed to participate on the Unison effort.

• A U.S. person, including those known as “Green Card holders”, is a person who is a lawful permanent resident of the United States or who is a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C.1101(a)(20) or 8 U.S.C.1324b(a)(3).

CUI managed by DARPA, to include CUI that is NOFORN or EXPORT CONTROLLED, may be disclosed to U.S. Persons if they are a performer on a DARPA S&T proposal team or, if they are a performer who has been awarded a DARPA S&T project and their sponsoring institution has agreed to comply with DoD CUI policies and procedures as detailed in either DoD 5200.48, DFARS 252.204-7012, 7019, and 7020, or similarly acceptable guidance and direction.

All U.S. Person registrants must complete and submit a DARPA Form 60 (https://dtsn.darpa.mil/eform60/). All DARPA Form 60s must be submitted no later than 3:00 PM EDT on October 29, 2026.

Upon entry to a physical meeting, all attendees will be required to present valid, Government-issued photo identification. Examples of approved forms of ID are available at the DARPA Visitor Information page (https://www.darpa.mil/policies/visitor-information).

The Proposers Day does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or proposal abstracts.

Attendance is voluntary and is not required to propose to any potential related solicitations on this https://creative.spa.com/darpa/sto/unison/pd/ https://dtsn.darpa.mil/eform60/ https://www.darpa.mil/policies/visitor-information https://www.darpa.mil/policies/visitor-information topic. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for any costs incurred to participate in this Proposers Day.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEAMING: DARPA highly encourages teaming to comprehensively address the goals of the program with the appropriate level of expertise. To support team building, Proposers Day registrants may choose to participate in the following opportunities designed to facilitate interaction among attendees and build strong teams to address the challenges presented in Unison.

1. Industry Interactive Exchange: This portion of the meeting will be conducted at the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) level. This interactive forum provides an opportunity for direct engagement, discussion, networking, and exploration of potential partnerships and practical applications. Participants are encouraged to bring posters, handouts, business cards, and other informational materials to support discussion with attendees.

Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of the participants. DARPA does not endorse the information and organizations provided during the showcase.

The Unison team may provide informal communication channels to assist in teaming discussions before, during, and after the event.

Potential proposers are strongly encouraged not to rely solely on this event or potential government communication channels to form teaming relationships.

2. Attendee List: Participant contact information (name, organization, email address) will be included on a Unison Proposers Day attendee list, which will be provided to all Proposers Day registrants. Registrants may indicate during registration whether they opt in or out.

Neither DARPA nor the Department of War endorses any participating organization.