DARPA-SN-26-116.pdf

Special Notice Information Processing Techniques

Office

Intrinsic Market Resilience (IMR) Proposers Day

DARPA-SN-26-116

August 17, 2026

Opportunity Intrinsic Market Resilience (IMR) Proposers Day

Event Proposers Day

Event Date/Time October 1, 2026, at 9:00 AM ET

Event Physical Location Executive Conference Center (ECC) – Unclassified Session 4075 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 Arlington, Virginia 22203

DARPA – Classified Session 675 North Randolph St Arlington, Virginia 22203

Fee to Attend There is NO fee to attend

Who can Attend This event is open to potential proposers only; not open to the public.

Registration Website https://events.sa-meetings.com/IMRProposersDay/

Registration Deadline September 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM (ET)

Non-U.S. Registration forms Deadline

September 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM (ET)

Administrative POC IMR@darpa.mil

DARPA Program Manager Dr. Matthew Wilding

PROPOSERS DAY

The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency’s (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) is sponsoring a Proposers Day with an unclassified session and a classified session in support of the anticipated Intrinsic Market Resilience (IMR) Program Solicitation (PS). The purpose of this event is to provide information on the IMR technical goals and challenges, address questions from potential proposers, and provide an opportunity for potential proposers to consider how their research may align with the IMR program objectives. Attendance is voluntary and is not required to propose to the IMR PS.

https://usg02.safelinks.protection.office365.us/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fevents.sa-meetings.com%2FIMRProposersDay%2F&data=05%7C02%7Crinku.parikh.ctr%40darpa.mil%7Cbd5fe48725104f0cfb5808dee417e66d%7Cf84814b5f44e46909314553e36b5f585%7C0%7C0%7C639198988474185959%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SHi%2BD8GrgiiVMwnsOa9gWRSSSSWf4hd2VglWPx6WxiU%3D&reserved=0

PROGRAM BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The evolution of markets from physical trading floors to interconnected, electronic venues has introduced new speed, transparency, and efficiency, but has also created new attack surfaces and systemic risks.

Modern markets, which host trading for everything from equities and bonds to energy and cloud computing resources, can be manipulated in ways unanticipated by their designers. The 2010 United States Equity market "flash crash" and the 2000-2001 California energy crisis demonstrated how weaknesses in a market's public interfaces could have dramatic consequences. Similar design issues in today's complex, interacting market systems could be used to cause economic damage, which the IMR program technology seeks to prevent.

The IMR program aims to develop repair methods to protect essential economic sectors against devastating attacks that exploit the public interfaces of modern markets. Current legal and regulatory protections focus on deterring profit-seeking manipulation and ensuring compliance, but they do not sufficiently protect markets from adversaries aiming simply to cause disruption. The IMR program seeks to address this gap by developing the tools to automatically model market designs, identify hidden weaknesses, and recommend and analyze repairs on the market models to make markets fundamentally more resilient to attack.

IMR aims to combine Large Language Model (LLM)-based automation with rigorous modeling and analysis to identify remediations for market weaknesses. The program will develop formal notations to precisely describe how markets operate and coordinate, creating machine-analyzable models from informal descriptions like regulatory filings and technical specifications. Against these models, IMR will formulate and assess "resilience conjectures” - mathematical statements about desirable market properties, such as the inability for actors to manipulate prices without risking loss.

By automatically analyzing these conjectures, the program aims to prove that a market design is resilient in specific ways or, if it is not, to generate a counterexample that illustrates a concrete weakness. These counterexamples will then be used to refine the conjectures and, ultimately, to recommend and confirm specific repairs to the market's design. This approach is intended to provide a capability to protect U.S.

markets against adversaries who wish to cause chaos, ensuring the stability of both civilian and military critical resources that rely on modern market mechanisms.

If a solicitation is published it will be available at SAM.gov.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

The IMR Proposers Day unclassified session will be held on October 1, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 1:15 PM ET in-person at the Executive Conference Center, located at 4075 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia, 22203 and virtually via Zoom (the virtual option is only available for the unclassified session). The classified session will be conducted at DARPA, 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia 22203, from 3:15 PM to 5:15 PM ET. Only U.S. citizens who hold an active Top Secret security clearance are eligible to attend the classified session.

No more than three (3) representatives per organization unit, and five (5) people per overall organization, may attend this Proposers Day. The classified session will be limited to three (3) representatives per organization unit. Registrants are strongly encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration.

https://sam.gov/

All attendees interested in the classified session must attend the unclassified session; thus, absence at the unclassified session will disqualify your admittance into the classified session.

IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION

Registration for in-person attendance must be completed no later than September 1, 2026, 5:00 PM ET.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis with a limit of 136 participants. Any United States (U.S.)

citizen seeking to attend the Proposers’ Day in-person will be required to present a valid, Government-issued photo identification at the registration table prior to admittance into the event.

All visitors attending the classified session to be held at DARPA are also required to submit a DARPA eForm 104 no later than September 1, 2026. A link to the eForm 104 is provided on the IMR Proposers’ Day registration website.

Late in-person registrations may be admitted to the open session only after all pre-registered attendees are admitted, and only if room capacity allows. Please note, in-person check-in begins at 8:30 AM ET for the unclassified session and 2:45 PM ET for the classified session; late in-person registration requires significant coordination and may not be complete in time to gain physical entrance into the Proposers’ Day event.

VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION – UNCLASSIFIED SESSION ONLY

Registration for virtual attendance to the unclassified session must be completed no later than September 1, 2026, 5:00 PM ET. All virtual attendees are required to log in using their first and last name. Participants calling in must call from the number provided during registration.

REGISTRATION FOR CLEARED U.S. PERSONNEL

Only U.S. citizens who hold an active TOP SECRET security clearance are eligible to attend the classified session. Appropriate clearances must be submitted and received no later than September 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM ET. Clearances must be passed by one or more of the following processes:

• Sent via DISS (preferred method) to SMO Code DDAAUS4 for Collateral. Attention: Matthew Wilding/IMR Proposers Day

• Faxed – 703-528-3655 (unclassified) for Collateral.

REGISTRATION FOR NON-U.S. CITIZENS

Any non-U.S. citizen must complete and submit one of the following:

• DARPA eForm 60; or

• Foreign government personnel must submit an Official Visit Request completed by their respective

Embassy based in Washington, DC.

If attending an event in person, as part of the eForm 60 submission, non-U.S. citizens must upload the following documents:

• Permanent Resident Card (i.e., Green Card), if applicable

• Photo page of a valid, unexpired passport; and

• Current U.S. Visa

Foreign nationals who reside in their home countries and participate virtually in this event are not required to submit a Visa as part of their eForm 60. However, they must still provide either a copy of the photo page of their valid, unexpired passport or a copy of an unexpired Government-issued identification from their home country.

All non-U.S. citizen forms must be submitted no later than September 1, 2026, 5:00 PM ET. Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email.

Foreign government personnel should contact their respective Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request.

EVENT FORMAT

The IMR Proposers Day will include overview presentations by the DARPA Program Manager (PM), Matthew Wilding, and DARPA support offices; Attendee Introductions (in-person attendees only); a Question & Answer (Q&A) session; and include an opportunity for individual sidebar sessions (in-person attendees only) with the PM. Sidebar sessions require advanced sign-up at the time of registration, and are limited to the first twelve requests.

See additional details below on Attendee Introductions.

Following the Proposers Day, please visit the IMR program page at: Intrinsic Market Resilience (IMR) for additional program information.

ATTENDEE TEAMING

DARPA welcomes all Proposer Day attendees to register to participate in Attendee Introductions.

Attendee Introductions are hosted to facilitate informal teaming opportunities whereby Proposers Day attendees have the opportunity to present introductory information regarding their organization, their organization’s capabilities, and any capabilities their organization is interested in partnering with.

Attendee Introductions must be no longer than 3 minutes, and a slide may be submitted ahead of Proposers Day to IMR@darpa.mil. Registration for Attendee Introductions is included on the IMR Proposers Day registration website.

To further assist those wanting to establish collaborative teaming efforts and business relationships, potential proposers may indicate on the registration website that they authorize their contact information to be shared among meeting participants. For persons or organizations new to IMR, this may be of use in connecting with potential partners. The IMR team anticipates potential proposers will have the opportunity to conduct informal teaming discussions in-person and virtually during and after the event. The IMR team may provide informal communication channels to assist in teaming discussions 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. The government is not responsible for the content or sharing of information.

REQUEST FOR IMR PS CLASSIFIED ADDENDUM

DARPA anticipates releasing a classified PS addendum to the unclassified PS related to the protection of critical infrastructure. This classified PS addendum will be released to eligible organizations on October 1, 2026, after the classified Proposers Day session.

https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/instrinic-market-resilience-imr mailto:IMR@darpa.mil

The classified addendum is TOP SECRET and will only be transmitted via the DARPA Savannah ASCEND network (SAV), the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) or the Secure Integration Cloud (SIC); therefore, proposers intending to receive the classified addendum or submit classified proposals must have access to SAV, JWICS or SIC. Proposers receiving or responding to the classified addendum must be issued an IMR Security Classification Guide (SCG) and a solicitation DD-254 “DoD Contract Security Classification Specification” prior to receiving or preparing any classified proposal materials. Proposers will not further disseminate any classified information related to this solicitation to other potential subcontractor proposal team members without first issuing a solicitation subcontractor DD-254 approved by DARPA. Subcontractor DD-254s are required to be submitted by October 15, 2026.

DARPA anticipates issuing solicitation DD-254s on October 1, 2026. The classified addendum must be requested no later than 5:00 PM ET on September 1, 2026. Proposers who fail to meet this deadline will not be able to receive the classified addendum on October 1, 2026. Late requests will be accepted up to October 15, 2026; however, DARPA has no obligation to ensure late requests are processed. To request the classified addendum, email the following required information to IMR@darpa.mil:

1. Organization name (listed on Facility Clearance Letter):

2. CAGE Code:

3. Physical address where classified work will be performed:

4. Facility Security Officer (FSO)/Contractor Special Security Officer (CSSO) or other security POC on site (include phone number and email):

5. FSO/CSSO or security POC on site (SAV email):

6. The same information above for all alternate work locations where the classified addendum will be transmitted/stored within your organization:

DARPACONNECT

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.

NOTE: This Special Notice does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals. This notice is issued solely for information and program planning purposes. Interested parties to this notice are cautioned that nothing herein obligates DARPA to issue a solicitation.

NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN ANY COMMUNICATIONS IN

RESPONSE TO THIS SPECIAL NOTICE.

mailto:IMR@darpa.mil http://www.darpaconnect.us/