DARPARA2502_YFA_2026_Amendment_5_Summary_of_Changes.docx

Amendment 5 to the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026 Research Announcement provides key eligibility clarifications for the program. The amendment specifies that DARPA/DoD funding limits and tenure requirements apply only to the Principal Investigator (PI), not to Senior Personnel or team members. Previous YFA awardees are now permitted to serve as Senior Personnel, and the amendment introduces new definitions for Key Personnel, Senior Personnel, and team member categories.

The YFA program, administered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aims to identify and engage early-career researchers in academia and non-profit research institutions. The program provides high-impact funding to support innovative research that can develop transformative Department of Defense capabilities. It is part of the Research and Technology Development program (CFDA 12.910), which supports high-risk, high-reward research with potential national security applications. The funding mechanism is a cooperative agreement, targeting rising researchers who can contribute to creating technological innovations for national security.