DARPARA2501.pdf

Research Announcement Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2025

Defense Sciences Office

DARPARA2501

October 23, 2024

This publication constitutes a Research Announcement (RA) as contemplated in the 2 CFR § 200.203.

Any resultant award negotiations will follow all pertinent law and regulation, and any negotiations.

OVERVIEW INFORMATION:

Federal Agency Name – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense

Sciences Office (DSO)

Funding Opportunity Title – Young Faculty Award (YFA)

Announcement Type – Initial Announcement

Funding Opportunity Number – DARPARA2501

Assistance Listing Number: 12.910 Research and Technology Development

Dates/Time - All Times are Eastern Time Zone (ET) o Posting Date: October 23, 2024 o Executive Summary Due Date: November 18, 2024, 4:00 p.m.

o Question Submittal Closed: January 22, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

o Proposal Due Date: February 5, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

Anticipated individual awards - Multiple awards are anticipated.

Anticipated Funding Available for Award: Each award will include a 24-month base period (a maximum of $500,000). Each 12-month interval of the base period shall not exceed $250,000 and a 12-month option period (a maximum of $500,000).

Eligibility: Proposers must be employed at a U.S. institution in a current tenured track faculty position, tenured faculty within 3 years of their tenure date, or an equivalent at a non-profit research institution within 12 years of the receipt of their doctorate. Proposers that have received funding greater than $500,000 from DARPA or $1,250,000 from all other DoD sources combined as either a prime or subawardee are not eligible to apply for the YFA program. Additional eligibility information can be found in Section IV.

Executive Summaries: Prior to submitting a full proposal, proposers are strongly encouraged to first submit an executive summary. As the YFA is considered a mentorship program, submission of a proposal is strongly discouraged if a proposal is not recommended for submission based on the executive summary.

Types of instruments that may be awarded – Cooperative Agreements

NAICS Code: 541713, 541714, 541715, 541720

Agency contact o Point of Contact

The RA Coordinator for this effort may be reached at:

YFA2025@darpa.mil

DARPA/ DSO

ATTN: DARPARA2501

675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114

Section I: Funding Opportunity Description

A. Introduction The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA) program aims to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions in academia and equivalent positions at non-profit research institutions, particularly those without prior DARPA funding, to expose them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs and DARPA’s mission to create and prevent technological surprise for national security. The YFA program will provide high-impact funding to researchers early in their careers to develop innovative new research that enables transformative DoD capabilities. Ultimately, the YFA program is developing the next generation of researchers focused on national security issues.

Before preparing an executive summary or proposal submission, proposers are encouraged to review the DARPA mission statement and current program descriptions at the DARPA website https://www.darpa.mil to familiarize themselves with examples of current DARPA investments.

This is not meant as instruction to duplicate those efforts, but rather to illustrate that current programs are aimed at research that will substantially advance our capabilities in these areas.

Once awards are made, each YFA program performer will be assigned a DARPA Program Manager with interests closely related to their research topic. The Program Manager will act as project manager and mentor to the YFA award recipients.

Proposers should also familiarize themselves with the “Heilmeier Catechism.” Details about the catechism and questions it seeks to answer can be found at https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism.

B. Program Description/Scope DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the areas of interest to the following DARPA technical offices: Defense Sciences Office (DSO), Information Innovation Office (I2O), Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), and the Tactical Technology Office (TTO). Further detail regarding the specific technical areas of interest can be found below under “Open Office Topics”. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

Submissions responding to a topic under this RA should clearly describe the relevance and impact of the proposed concept for addressing the national security challenges; the current state-of-the-art technology; new insights to address key technical challenges; a credible research plan and schedule; and critical, quantitative milestones to be pursued over the research period.

This RA seeks cooperative agreement proposals only for a research activity consisting of a 24-month base period with a maximum total funding of $500,000 over the 24 months. Each 12-month interval of the base period shall not exceed $250,000. No award type other than cooperative agreements will be issued under this RA. Proposals should also include an additional 12-month option period with a maximum funding level of $500,000.

C. Open Office Topics This RA solicits single principal investigator (PI) proposals for research and development across an array of technical areas. The YFA 2025 announcement is composed of four open topics, with each topic representing a DARPA technical office participating in the announcement. Under https://www.darpa.mil/ https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism each open office topic, several technical areas of interests (or research thrusts) and key words (or key areas of interest) are listed. All submissions must align with an office, technical area, and key word.

Potential applicants are encouraged to carefully consider the DARPA Office, technical area, and key words before submission. Each submission (executive summary or full proposal) must specify ONE and only one DARPA office topic, technical area, and key word for the submission. The DARPA office, technical area, and relevant keyword should be included on the submission’s cover sheet. Executive Summaries and Full Proposals that do not clearly address a specific technical area and key word may be deemed non-conforming and may not be reviewed.

DARPA reserves the right to assign a proposal or an executive summary to a different topic area than indicated by the proposer.

Prior to submitting a full proposal, proposers are strongly encouraged to first submit an executive summary. As the YFA is considered a mentorship program, submission of a proposal is strongly discouraged if a proposal is not recommended for submission based on the executive summary.

At the executive summary phase, proposing PIs are limited to submitting only a single executive summary; at the full proposal phase, proposing PIs are limited to submitting only a single full proposal. Submissions must identify a single office topic, technical (thrust) area, and keyword under this RA. Submitting more than one executive summary or full proposal may result in all of the PI’s proposal submissions being determined non-conforming and being removed from award consideration.

Technical inquiries should be emailed to YFA2025@darpa.mil with the topic and technical area stated in the subject line. Your question will be distributed to the appropriate contact.

1. Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Open YFA Topic

The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is to identify and create the next generation of scientific discovery to fuel innovation throughout the Agency and beyond. DSO serves as “DARPA’s DARPA” by developing and executing an aggressive and forward leaning portfolio that expands the art of the possible across a broad set of technical areas. DSO is explicitly interested in nascent high-risk, high-reward research relevant to the Department of Defense. The DSO YFA topic invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research proposals that investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary national security advances in the following key technical interest areas and key words.

Physical Sciences: Open quantum systems, quantum-enhanced sensing, novel qubit platforms, complex chemical systems, nuclear systems and beams, nuclear particle/photon interactions, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, Materials Science: Dynamically programmable matter, non-planer integration of piezoelectric transducers, location-specific microstructure control, autonomous materials research, interlocking metasurfaces, nano-fluidics for reaction control, Mathematics, Computation, and Processing: Quantum-classical hybrid computing, cryptography, compute in sensor, interpretable reinforcement learning, data-driven hypothesis generation mailto:YFA2025@darpa.mil

Collective Intelligence: Interpretable reinforcement learning, logical artificial intelligence (AI), AI knowledge representation For additional information about DSO’s areas of interest, please see https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/dso

2. Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) Open YFA Topic

The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) is to identify the next horizon of scientific disruption, ecosystem disruption and market disruption. MTO is interested in the technology surrounding photonics, quantum systems and organic microsystems (NOT biosensors). MTO is also interested in materials and manufacturing science that enables never-before-possible capability. The MTO YFA topic invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research proposals that investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary national security advances in the following key technical interest areas and key words.

Photonics: high harmonic generation, attosecond spectroscopy, high-energy radiation sources, utilizing electrically-injected small form factor optical sources (e.g., nanolasers); extreme environments Quantum microsystems: energy-efficient milliKelvin cryogenic coolers; insulating techniques for cryogenic interconnects Organic microsystems: nano-scale self-assembly; biological nanofabrication Materials and manufacturing: semiconductor growth techniques that are independent of substrate lattice-constant; process modeling and simulation; in situ characterization methods for growth and/or processing; real-time control of radiative properties; security-aware integrated circuit design; microscale radiation detection

For additional information about MTO’s areas of interest, please see https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/mto

3. Information Innovation Office (I2O) Open YFA Topic

The Information Innovation Office (I2O) creates groundbreaking science and develops transformational capabilities in the informational and computational spheres to surprise adversaries and maintain enduring advantage for national security. I2O’s areas of interest currently span the following four research thrusts:

Proficient artificial intelligence (AI)

Resilient, adaptable, and secure systems

Advantage in cyber

Confidence in the information domain https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/dso https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/mto

The following key words apply to all thrust areas: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral and Cognitive Science, Computer Vision, Cyber, Data, Formal Methods, Human-Machine Interaction, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Networking, Privacy, Resilience, Security, Trust.

For additional information about I2O’s areas of interest, please see https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/i2o

4. Tactical Technology Office (TTO) Open YFA Topic

The mission of the Tactical Technology Office (TTO) is to transform the future of warfighting through the development and demonstration of advanced space, air, maritime, and ground weapons, platforms, systems and technologies. TTO invites proposers to submit innovative fundamental research concepts that address one or more of the following technical thrust areas:

(1) Platform Innovation (2) Missionized Autonomy, (3) Managing Complexity, (4) Freedom’s Forge 2.0, (5) Disruptive Emergent Technology. Proposals must investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances.

Platform Innovation: Design, engineer, and demonstrate new and innovative platforms at credible scale, proving new enabling technologies that lead to disruptive systems concepts.

Key Areas of Interest: Platform performance enhancements, multi-domain operation enablers, platforms that improve logistics, VLEO operation enablers, attritable platforms, domain persistence, novel platform control methods.

Missionized Autonomy: Apply autonomy as a force multiplier to enable the scaling of massed effects for defense applications, focusing on trustworthiness, security, heterogenous platform cooperation, and one-to-many human-systems interfaces.

Key Areas of Interest: Autonomy applications, decision enablers, swarm and counter-swarm, autonomy behaviors that enable novel platforms, multi-agent teaming and collaboration

Managing Complexity: Reduce risk and cost through new methods of design space exploration and high-capacity computing that provide more efficient and complete insight on system architectures, deliver visibility into higher-order interactions, and enable focused and efficient testing.

Key Areas of Interest: Autonomy applications, decision enablers, swarm and counter-swarm, autonomy behaviors that enable novel platforms, multi-agent teaming and collaboration

Freedom’s Forge 2.0: Make manufacturing, maintainability, and testing processes portable, affordable, scalable, and responsive.

Key Areas of Interest: Enablers for scaling of manufacturing, additive manufacturing applications, low-cost avionics and propulsion, production of energetics, export control triage

Disruptive Emergent Technology: Examine the potential for emergent technology to disrupt the tactical battlefield in non-obvious ways. Of particular interest are submissions that identify fundamental disruptions which could provide the foundation for future DARPA programs or DARPA/TTO focus areas.

Key Areas of Interest: Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) techniques and tools, flow control, tactical power (production, harvesting, storage, and distribution), Imaging https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/i2o https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/i2o

For additional information about TTO’s areas of interest, please see https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/tto

D. Program Structure This RA seeks cooperative agreement proposals for a research activity consisting of a 24-month base period. No award type other than cooperative agreements will be issued under this RA.

Each 12-month interval of the base period shall not exceed $250,000. Proposals should also include a 12-month option period with a maximum funding level of $500,000. The 12-month option period, referred to as the “Director’s Fellowship,” will be reserved for a limited number of awardees who demonstrate exceptional YFA project performance over the 24-month base period.

YFA recipients may request one No-Cost Extension (NCE) to the base period of performance (PoP) not to exceed 12 months. NCEs beyond 12 months for the base period require justification be submitted to the Grants Officer for consideration. To qualify for the Director’s Fellowship option period, the effort's reports must demonstrate measurable progress toward project objectives during the performance period and show that a significant portion of the received funding has been expended.

Director’s Fellowship nominations by the DARPA Program Manager Mentor may be deferred until measurable progress toward project objectives during the performance period have been achieved and required reasonable expenditure levels have been reached, provided that deferment not surpass the Cooperative Agreement PoP, to include any requested extensions. Director’s Fellowship recipients may request one NCE for the Director’s Fellowship option PoP, not to exceed 12 months.

A target start date of August 2025 may be assumed for planning purposes.

For budgeting purposes, please plan for a minimum of 3 two-day meetings in the Washington, D.C. area over the course of the 24-month base period and one additional meeting over the course of the 12-month option period. Travel proposed for non-DoD sponsored activities and events is highly discouraged, please see FAQ for more information.

Section II: Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria listed in descending order of importance: Overall Scientific and Technical Merit; Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission; and Cost Realism.

o Overall Scientific and Technical Merit:

The proposed technical approach is innovative, feasible, achievable, and complete. The proposed technical team has the expertise and experience to accomplish the proposed tasks. Task descriptions and associated technical elements provided are complete and in a logical sequence with all proposed deliverables clearly defined such that a final outcome that achieves the goal can be expected as a result of award. The proposal identifies major technical risks, and planned mitigation efforts are clearly defined and feasible. The proposed schedule aggressively pursues performance metrics in an efficient time frame that accurately accounts for the anticipated workload.

o Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission:

https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/

The potential contributions of the proposed effort bolster the national security technology base and support DARPA’s mission to make pivotal early technology investments that create or prevent technological surprise. The proposed intellectual property restrictions (if any) will not significantly impact the Government’s ability to transition the technology.

o Cost Realism:

The proposed costs are realistic for the technical and management approach and accurately reflect the technical goals and objectives of the announcement. All proposed labor, material, and travel costs are necessary to achieve the program metrics, consistent with the proposer's Statement of Work and reflect a sufficient understanding of the costs and level of effort needed to successfully accomplish the proposed technical approach.

The costs for the prime proposer and proposed subawardees are substantiated by the details provided in the proposal (e.g., the type and number of labor hours proposed per task, the types and quantities of materials, equipment and fabrication costs, travel and any other applicable costs and the basis for the estimates).

For additional information on how DARPA reviews and evaluates proposals through the Scientific Review Process, please see “Proposer Instructions: General Terms and Conditions.” in Section III: Submission Information.

Section III: Submission Information

All awards under this announcement will be Cooperative Agreements. Please review the following link for additional information regarding award instrument information:

Assistance Agreement Awards (Grants and Cooperative Agreements): Proposer Instructions: Grants/Cooperative Agreements.

This announcement contains an Executive Summary phase. DARPA intends to conduct a blind review of submitted executive summaries. Institution and Key Personnel identifying information must be present on only the Executive Summary Cover Sheet, which will be separated from the remaining text prior to DARPA conducting its review. If Institution or Key Personnel identifying information is found after the Executive Summary Cover Page, the executive summary may be deemed non-conforming and may not be reviewed. DARPA will respond to executive summaries with a statement as to whether DARPA is interested in the idea. Regardless of DARPA’s response to an executive summary, proposers may submit a full proposal. DARPA will review all conforming full proposals using the published evaluation criteria (Section II) and without regard to any comments resulting from the review of an executive summary. Proposers should note that a favorable response to an executive summary is not a guarantee that a proposal based on the executive summary will ultimately be selected for award negotiation. Executive summaries submitted in response to this announcement may anticipate a response within approximately 45 calendar days. These notifications will be sent via email to the Technical POC and/or Administrative POC identified on the Executive Summary Cover Sheet.

Executive Summaries are due November 18, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. as stated in the Overview section. Additional instructions for Executive Summary submission are contained within Attachment A. All Executive Summaries must be submitted through the Broad Agency https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements

Announcement Tool (BAAT). Each technical office will have a separate announcement listing in BAAT (e.g. DARPARA2501-01 DSO, DARPARA2501-02 TTO, etc.) BAAT submission details are provided below in “Proposer Instructions: General Terms and Conditions.”

Full proposals are due February 5, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. as stated in the Overview section. All proposals must be submitted through Grants.gov. Grants.gov submission details are provided at this link: Proposer Instructions: Grants/Cooperative Agreements.

Attachments B and C contain specific instructions and templates and constitute a full proposal submission. Budget Justification should be provided as Section L of the SF 424 Research & Related Budget form provided via http://www.grants.gov. The Budget Justification should include the following information for the recipient and all subawardees:

o Direct Labor (sections A and B) - Detail the total number of persons and their level of commitment for each position listed as well as which specific tasks (as described in the SOW) they will support.

o Equipment (section C) - Provide an explanation for listed requested equipment exceeding $5,000, properly justifying why it is required to meet the objectives of the program.

o Travel (section D) - Provide the purpose of the trip, number of trips, number of days per trip, departure and arrival destinations, number of people, etc.

o Other Direct Costs (section F) - Provide a justification for the items requested and an explanation of how the estimates were obtained.

o Participant/Trainee Support Costs (section E) - Provide details on Tuition/Fees/Health Insurance, Stipends, Travel and Subsistence costs.

RA Attachments:

o (required if submitting an Executive Summary) Attachment A: Executive Summary

Template o (required) Attachment B: Proposal Summary Slide Template o (required) Attachment C: Proposal Instructions and Volume I Template (Technical and

Management) o (required) Attachment D: Proposal Instructions and Volume II Template

(Administrative and National Policy Requirements)

Proposer Instructions: General Terms and Conditions o System for Award Management (SAM) Registration and Universal Identifier Requirements All proposers must be registered in SAM unless exempt per FAR 4.1102, FAR 52.204-7, “System for Award Management” and FAR 52.204-13, “System for Award Management Maintenance” are incorporated into this RA. and have a valid Unique Entity ID to receive an award. All proposers must maintain an active and current SAM registration at all times throughout the award process, should they be selected. All proposers are to provide their Unique Entity ID in each proposal they submit. Click HERE to register in SAM.

o Content and Form of Application Submission https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements http://www.grants.gov/ https://sam.gov/SAM/

All submissions must be written in English with type not smaller than 12-point font.

Smaller font may be used for figures, tables, and charts. All documents submitted must be clearly labeled with the DARPA RA number, proposer organization, and proposal title/proposal short title. All monetary references in the proposal shall be in U.S. Dollars.

o Electronic Invoicing and Payments Awardees will be required to submit invoices for payment electronically via Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF), accessed through the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment, unless an exception applies. Registration in WAWF is required prior to any award.

o Electronic and Information Technology All electronic and information technology acquired or created through a Research Announcement must satisfy the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 749d) and FAR 39.2.

o Patent Reports and Notifications All resultant awards will contain a mandatory requirement for patent reports and notifications to be submitted electronically through i-Edison.

o Review of Proposals DARPA will conduct a scientific/technical review of each conforming proposal.

Conforming proposals comply with all requirements detailed in this announcement;

proposals that fail to do so may be deemed non-conforming and may be removed from consideration. Proposals will not be evaluated against each other since they are not submitted in accordance with a common work statement.

Award(s) will be made to proposers whose proposals are determined to be the most advantageous to the Government, consistent with instructions and evaluation criteria specified in the RA herein, and availability of funding.

o Handling of Source Selection Information DARPA policy is to treat all submissions as source selection information (see FAR 2.101 and 3.104), and to disclose their contents only for the purpose of evaluation. Restrictive notices notwithstanding, during the evaluation process, submissions may be handled by support contractors for administrative purposes and/or to assist with technical evaluation.

All DARPA support contractors performing this role are expressly prohibited from performing DARPA-sponsored technical research and are bound by appropriate nondisclosure agreements. Subject to the restrictions set forth in FAR 37.203(d), input on technical aspects of the proposals may be solicited by DARPA from non-Government consultants/experts who are strictly bound by the appropriate non-disclosure requirements.

o Award Information DARPA anticipates multiple awards. The level of funding for individual awards made under this RA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of https://piee.eb.mil/ https://piee.eb.mil/ https://www.nist.gov/iedison funds. Awards will be made to proposers whose proposals are determined to be the most advantageous to the Government, all evaluation factors considered.

The Government reserves the right to:

select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement;

make awards without discussions with proposers;

conduct discussions with proposers if it is later determined to be necessary;

segregate portions of resulting awards into pre-priced options;

accept proposals in their entirety or select only portions of proposals for award;

fund awards in increments with options for continued work at the end of one or more phases;

request additional documentation once the award instrument has been determined

(e.g., representations and certifications); and remove proposers from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms within a reasonable time or the proposer fails to provide requested additional information in a timely manner.

In all cases, the Government contracting officer shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type, regardless of instrument type proposed, and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. DARPA will not award efforts under YFA that present a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense.

o Proprietary Information Proposers are responsible for clearly identifying proprietary information. Submissions containing proprietary information must have the cover page and each page containing such information clearly marked with a label such as “Proprietary” or “Company Proprietary.” NOTE: “Confidential” is a classification marking used to control the dissemination of U.S. Government National Security Information as dictated in Executive Order 13526 and should not be used to identify proprietary business information.

o Organizational Conflicts of Interest Proposers shall identify and disclose all facts relevant to potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI), involving the proposer’s organization, and any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR 9.5). The proposer is responsible for providing this disclosure with each proposal submitted to the announcement. The disclosure must include the proposer’s, and as applicable, proposed team member’s OCI mitigation plan. The OCI mitigation plan must include a description of the actions the proposer has taken, or intends to take, to prevent the existence of conflicting roles that might bias the proposer’s judgment and to prevent the proposer from having unfair competitive advantage. The OCI mitigation plan will specifically discuss the disclosed OCI in the context of each of the OCI limitations outlined in FAR 9.505-1 through FAR 9.505-4.

o Agency Supplemental OCI Policy

In addition, DARPA has a supplemental OCI policy that prohibits contractors/performers from concurrently providing Scientific Engineering Technical Assistance (SETA), Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) or similar support services and being a technical performer. Therefore, as part of the FAR 9.5 disclosure requirement above, a proposer must affirm whether the proposer or any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) is providing SETA, A&AS, or similar support to any DARPA office(s) under:

(a) a current award or subaward; or (b) a past award or subaward that ended within one calendar year prior to the proposal’s submission date.

If SETA, A&AS, or similar support is being or was provided to any DARPA office(s), the proposal must include:

The name of the DARPA office receiving the support;

The prime contract number;

Identification of proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) providing the support; and An OCI mitigation plan in accordance with FAR 9.5.

o Government Procedures In accordance with FAR 9.503, 9.504 and 9.506, the Government will evaluate OCI mitigation plans to avoid, neutralize or mitigate potential OCI issues before award and to determine whether it is in the Government’s interest to grant a waiver. If the Government determines to grant a waiver, it will be processed after careful review of the mitigation plan. The Government will only evaluate OCI mitigation plans for proposals that are determined selectable under the announcement evaluation criteria and funding availability.

The Government may require proposers to provide additional information to assist the Government in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan. If the Government determines that a proposer failed to fully disclose an OCI; or failed to provide the affirmation of DARPA support as described above; or failed to reasonably provide additional information requested by the Government to assist in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan, the Government may reject the proposal and withdraw it from consideration for award.

o Agency Level Protests & Ombudsman Information For information concerning agency level protests, please contact CMO_Protests@darpa.mil. Please ensure to copy the mailbox address referenced in the announcement related to the effort you are inquiring about. For any Agency Ombudsman related inquiries, please reach out to DARPA_Ombudsman@darpa.mil.

o Unclassified Submission Instructions Failure to comply with the submission procedures outlined herein may result in the submission being deemed non-conforming and withdrawn from consideration. Email submissions will not be accepted.

DARPA encourages proposers to submit UNCLASSIFIED Executive Summaries via DARPA’s Broad Agency Announcement Tool (BAAT). If an account has recently been created for the DARPA BAAT, this account may be reused. Accounts are typically mailto:CMO_Protests@darpa.mil mailto:DARPA_Ombudsman@darpa.mil https://baa.darpa.mil/ disabled and eventually deleted following 75-90 days of inactivity – if you are unsure when the account was last used, it is recommended that you create a new account. If no account currently exists for the DARPA BAAT, visit the website to complete the two-step registration process. Submitters will need to register for an Extranet account (by clicking “Create New Account” at the URL listed above) and wait for two separate e-mails containing a username and temporary password. After accessing the Extranet, submitters may then create an account for the DARPA BAAT (via the “Register your Organization” link along the left side of the homepage), view submission instructions, and upload/finalize the proposal. Note: Even if a submitter’s organization has an existing registration, each user submitting a proposal must create their own Organization Registration.

All unclassified Executive Summaries submitted electronically through BAAT must be uploaded as zip archives (i.e., files with a .zip or .zipx extension). The final zip archive should be no greater than 100 MB in size. Only one zip archive will be accepted per submission - subsequent uploads for the same submission will overwrite previous uploads, and submissions not uploaded as zip archives will be rejected by DARPA.

Proposers using BAAT may encounter heavy traffic on the submission deadline date;

proposers should start this process as early as possible. Technical support for the DARPA RA Submission website is available during regular business hours, Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Requests for technical support must be emailed to BAAT_Support@darpa.mil with a copy to the RA email address identified in RA.

Questions regarding submission contents, format, deadlines, etc. should be emailed to the RA email address identified in the RA. Questions/requests for support sent to any other email address may result in delayed/no response.

o Subawardee Proposals The awardee is responsible for compiling and providing all subawardee proposals for the Grants Officer (GO), as applicable. Subawardee proposals should include Interdivisional Work Transfer Agreements (ITWA) or similar arrangements. Where the effort consists of multiple portions which could reasonably be partitioned for purposes of funding, these should be identified as options with separate cost estimates for each. All proprietary subawardee proposal documentation, prepared at the same level of detail as that required of the awardee’s proposal and which cannot be uploaded with the proposed awardee’s proposal, shall be provided to the Government either by the awardee or by the subawardee organization when the proposal is submitted. Subawardee Sr. or Key personnel must meet the eligibility requirements for YFA listed in Section IV: Special Considerations below.

Section IV: Special Considerations

This announcement, stated attachments, and websites incorporated by reference constitute the entire solicitation. In the event of a discrepancy between the announcement, attachments, or websites, the announcement takes precedence.

https://baa.darpa.mil/ mailto:BAAT_Support@darpa.mil

Non-U.S. organizations cannot participate in this announcement. All other responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses and Minority Institutions are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this announcement will be set aside for these organizations’ participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities.

Participation is open to individuals who are U.S. Citizens, U.S. Permanent Residents, and Foreign Nationals who meet the eligibility criteria listed below. All proposed team members must meet these requirements:

Proposers and proposed team members must be one of the following (excluding any personal leaves of absence) by the full proposal deadline listed in Part One: Overview Information:

o current Tenure-Track Assistant/Associate Professors;

o current Tenured faculty within 3 years of their Tenure date; or o an equivalent at a non-profit research institution within 12 years of the receipt of their Ph.D.

All proposers and proposed team members must be employed at a U.S. institution, which includes those in U.S. states and territories. Proposals from outside these regions will not be accepted.

Individuals who have previously received a YFA Award are not eligible for this or any future YFA program.

Former DARPA Program Managers are not eligible to apply for funding under this program.

Researchers working at Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, University Affiliated Research Centers, National Laboratories or other Government entities are not eligible to apply as PIs or subawardees under this program.

Non-U.S. individuals employed by U.S. institutions may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances.

Proposers that have received funding greater than $500,000 from DARPA or $1,250,000 from all other DoD sources combined as either a prime or subawardee are not eligible to apply for the YFA program.

As of the time of publication of this announcement, all proposal submissions are anticipated to be unclassified.

As of the date of publication of this announcement, the Government expects that program goals as described herein may be met by proposers intending to perform fundamental research and does not anticipate applying publication restrictions of any kind to individual awards for fundamental research that may result from this announcement. DARPA will not select proposals for negotiation of an award if the proposal is deemed to be Applied Research, or otherwise requires Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) restrictions.

Inclusion of publication costs is highly discouraged, proposed costs should focus on program goals and objectives. Please see FAQ for additional information.

DARPA’s Fundamental Research Risk-Based Security Review Process (formerly CFIP, now FRR-BS a.k.a. “FERBS”) is an adaptive risk management security program designed to help protect the critical technology and performer intellectual property associated with DARPA’s research projects by identifying the possible vectors of undue foreign influence. DARPA will create risk assessments of all proposed Senior/Key Personnel selected for negotiation of a fundamental research grant or cooperative agreement award. The DARPA risk assessment process will be conducted separately from the DARPA scientific review process and adjudicated prior to final award. For additional information on this process, please visit Proposer Instructions: Grants/Cooperative Agreements.

Proposers that anticipate involving Human Subjects Research (HSR) or Animal Use in the proposed research must comply with the approval procedures detailed at Human Subjects and Animal Use, to include providing the information specified therein as required for proposal submission.

Additional Resources

The APEX Accelerators program, formerly known as the Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), focuses on building a strong, sustainable, and resilient U.S. supply chains by assisting a wide range of businesses that pursue and perform under contracts with the DoD, other federal agencies, state and local governments and with government prime contractors. See https://www.apexaccelerators.us/ for more information. APEX Accelerators helps businesses:

o Complete registration with a wide range of databases necessary for them to participate in the government marketplace (e.g., SAM).

o Identify which agencies and offices may need their products or services and how connect with buying agencies and offices.

o Determine whether they are ready for government opportunities and how to position themselves to succeed.

o Navigate solicitations and potential funding opportunities.

o Receive notifications of government contract opportunities on a regular basis.

o Network with buying officers, prime contractors, and other businesses.

o Resolve performance issues and prepare for audit, only if the service is needed, after receiving an award.

Project Spectrum is a nonprofit effort funded by the DoD Office of Small Business Programs to help educate the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) on compliance. Project Spectrum is vendor-neutral and available to assist businesses with their cybersecurity and compliance needs. Their mission is to improve cybersecurity readiness, resilience, and compliance for small/medium-sized businesses and the federal manufacturing supply chain. Project https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/humanresearch https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/humanresearch https://www.apexaccelerators.us/

Spectrum events and programs will enhance awareness of cybersecurity threats within the manufacturing, research and development, as well as knowledge-based services sectors of the industrial base. Project Spectrum will leverage strategic partnerships within and outside of the DoD to accelerate the overall cybersecurity compliance of the DIB.

www.projectspectrum.io is a web portal that will provide resources such as individualized dashboards, a marketplace, and Pilot Program to help accelerate cybersecurity compliance.

DARPAConnect offers free resources to potential performers to help them navigate DARPA, including “Understanding DARPA Award Vehicles and Solicitations,” “Making the Most of Proposers Days,” and “Tips for DARPA Proposal Success.” Join DARPAConnect at www.DARPAConnect.us to leverage on-demand learning and networking resources.

DARPA has streamlined our Broad Agency Announcements and Research Announcements and is interested in your feedback on this new format. Please send any comments to DARPAsolicitations@darpa.mil.

https://www.projectspectrum.io/ http://www.darpaconnect.us/ mailto:DARPAsolicitations@darpa.mil