DARPA-SN-26-125.pdf

DARPA Surgical Competition (DSC) Industry Day

DARPA-SN-26-125

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO)

Posting Date: September 10, 2026 Special Notice (SN) DARPA-SN-26-125: DARPA Surgical Competition Date: September 22, 2026 Location: Hybrid In-Person & Virtual - 4075 Wilson Blvd, Suite 201, Arlington, VA 22203 Classification: Unclassified Registration Deadline: September 16, 2026, 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Competition & Registration Website: https://events.sa-meetings.com/DSCIndustryDay/

E-mail: SurgicalCompetition@darpa.mil Technical Point of Contact (POC): Jeremy Pamplin, BTO Program Manager

The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host an Industry Day for potential competitors in the DARPA Surgical Competition (DSC). The Industry Day will be held on Wednesday September 22, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM in-person with a web-link for additional virtual attendance. Advance registration is required. Note: all times listed in this announcement and on the registration website are Eastern Time.

The Industry Day goals include:

1. Introduce the DARPA Surgical Competition vision and goals to the research community;

2. Encourage and promote teaming arrangements among organizations that have the relevant expertise, research facilities, and capabilities for executing research and development responsive to the program goals.

The Industry Day will include brief overview presentations by government personnel as well as an information session to respond to questions from participants. Potential competitors can highlight their technical capabilities through “lightning” talks such that teaming relationships can be developed.

Attendance at this event is not a requirement for qualification as a competitor. Information relayed during the Proposers Day will be made available at https://usg02.safelinks.protection.office365.us/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fevents.sa-meetings.com%2FDSCIndustryDay%2F&data=05%7C02%7Crebecca.mcfarland.ctr%40darpa.mil%7Ccf8bd29ba2534138f91a08defd2346f3%7Cf84814b5f44e46909314553e36b5f585%7C0%7C0%7C639226525158906295%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=KC7uvPYl3HQhNARtBrieI9nfZSyAEH0V%2B5tmDU8xM2M%3D&reserved=0 https://usg02.safelinks.protection.office365.us/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fevents.sa-meetings.com%2FDSCIndustryDay%2F&data=05%7C02%7Crebecca.mcfarland.ctr%40darpa.mil%7Ccf8bd29ba2534138f91a08defd2346f3%7Cf84814b5f44e46909314553e36b5f585%7C0%7C0%7C639226525158906295%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=KC7uvPYl3HQhNARtBrieI9nfZSyAEH0V%2B5tmDU8xM2M%3D&reserved=0 https://www.darpa.mil/research/challenges/surgical

COMPETITION OVERVIEW:

The DARPA Surgical Competition (DSC) seeks to establish the current state of the art for open, robotic trauma surgery and identify emerging technologies to further develop for autonomous robotic surgery and surgical assistance. The primary objective is to develop a minimum viable product for scalable trauma surgical robotics. This system must be capable of safely and collaboratively assisting with trauma surgery while rapidly learning new capabilities to gain trust and independence as a reliable surgical assistant or independent surgeon under appropriate indications.

The DARPA Surgical Competition aim to evaluate the integration of rapidly developing technologies to create an autonomous robotic surgeon. The competition will initially assess the key components required for robotic surgical assistance, focusing on a platform’s ability to communicate, rapidly learn, and safely interact with medical instruments and soft tissue. Upon successfully passing these component gates, platforms will be evaluated on both their collaborative and independent surgical capabilities—two operational configurations that any human surgeon must competently master.

The DARPA Surgical Competition feature three main evaluations: 1) Component Gates,

2) Surgical Collaboration, and 3) Surgical Independence.

Component Gates: Component Gates are evaluations of the individual components of the autonomous surgical platforms to assess system safety and autonomy. These gates are divided into three sub-categories: medical knowledge, physical capability, and rapid learning.

Surgical Collaboration: The collaborative capability lane will assess the ability of the developed platforms to perform assistive and collaborative surgical tasks side-by-side with a human surgeon. This assessment will be led by a human surgeon lead, who will direct the autonomous system while completing a surgical procedure.

Surgical Independence: The independent capability lane will evaluate the platforms' ability to execute surgical planning and perform surgical tasks without assistance.

Systems must assess a trauma-related case, develop a surgical plan, and execute an end-to-end procedure.

ELIGIBILITY AND SECURITY INFORMATION:

Qualification and participation are limited to individuals who are 18 years of age or older, not on the Specially Designated Nations list, and must meet all remaining eligibility criteria within the competition Terms & Conditions. All individuals requesting to participate are subject to screening to confirm participation eligibility.

All registrants for the meeting who are not U.S. Citizens (U.S. Permanent Residents and Foreign Nationals) must submit a DARPA Form 60, except foreign government personnel who must submit only an Official Visit Request completed by their respective Embassy https://www.darpa.mil/research/challenges/surgical based in Washington, DC. All forms must be submitted no later than 6:00 PM on September 11, 2026 (Note: This date is in advance of the meeting registration deadline).

Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email. Contact your Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request.

The DSC will be conducted at the Unclassified level.

The DSC prizes are authorized under 10 U.S.C. § 4025, subject to the availability of appropriated funds for which the payment for prize purposes can be made. The Government reserves the right to withhold prizes to ineligible and disqualified participants.

Tax treatment of prizes will be handled in accordance with U.S. Internal Revenue Service guidelines.

The winner will be required to provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number (TIN) or a social security number to receive the cash prize. Information on how to obtain a TIN is available on the U.S. Internal Revenue Service website at www.IRS.gov.

INDUSTRY DAY PARTICIPATION:

This Special Notice and Industry Day include two opportunities for prospective competitors to identify team members: lightning talks and teaming profiles.

Interested attendees are invited to present a brief, one-slide PowerPoint summary of their interests, capabilities, and teaming goals. Speakers will be allowed 3 minutes for discussion during a “lightning” presentation session at Industry Day. Presentations consisting of multiple slides will not be granted a time slot. Requests for lightning talks will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis and must be made during registration. All presentations must be emailed to SurgicalCompetition@darpa.mil no later than 4:00 PM ET on September 18, 2026. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of the participants.

Interested parties are also invited to submit a one-page ‘teaming profile’ describing technical competencies, unique facilities and other capabilities, as they relate to the program, and desired technical/other competencies sought from other potential team partners. should include, at a minimum:

• Contact information, to include name, organization, email, telephone number, mailing address, and website;

• Brief description of the competitors’ technical competencies and relevant facilities;

• Desired technical competencies and facilities from other potential team members, if applicable.

All conforming teaming profiles must be emailed to SurgicalCompetition@darpa.mil no later than September 18, 2026. Profiles that exceed the one-page limit will not be http://www.irs.gov/ mailto:SurgicalCompetition@darpa.mil accepted. Information contained in teaming profiles shall be publicly releasable – profile submitters consent to distribution amongst event registrants. After Industry Day, the teaming profiles will be sent via e-mail to all registrants on September 29, 2026. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of participants. Neither DARPA nor the DoW endorses any participating organization, nor does DARPA or DoW exercise any responsibility for improper dissemination of the teaming profiles.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

PLEASE NOTE: Registration closes on September 16, 2026, at 4:00 PM ET.

Registration is limited by the physical & videoconference capacity, and early registration is strongly recommended as attendance will be limited to the first 70 in-person & 1000 virtual registrants. The registration cutoff date is September 16, 2026, at 4:00 PM ET, or once attendance capacity is met, whichever comes first. There will be no same-day registration.

Participants must register in advance through the registration website. Interested parties are encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration. Attendance is limited to no more than two representatives per organization.

Individuals that are unable to register because the deadline has passed or capacity has been reached will be added to a waitlist. If slots remain open after registration closes or become available due to cancellations, the slots will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis from the waitlist. An online registration form and various other meeting details can be found at the registration website: https://events.sa-meetings.com/DSCIndustryDay

Potential competitor teams are not required to attend Industry Day, although participation is strongly encouraged.

Non-U.S. Citizens seeking registration must complete the following guidance:

• All U.S. Permanent Residents and Foreign Nationals must submit a DARPA Form 60, except foreign government personnel who must submit only an Official Visit Request completed by their respective Embassy based in Washington, DC.

Registrants who have submitted a Form 60 that was approved within the last six months do not need to re-submit. The Form 60 will remain valid for six months.

• All forms must be submitted no later than 4:00 PM on September 11, 2026 (Note:

This date is in advance of the meeting registration deadline). Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email. Contact your Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request.

All administrative and technical questions should be directed to SurgicalCompetition@darpa.mil. Please refer to the DARPA Surgical Competition https://events.sa-meetings.com/DSCIndustryDay

Industry Day (DARPA-SN-26-125) in all correspondence. This announcement is not a request for proposals; any sent to the Special Notice email address will be disregarded.

DARPA hosts Industry Days to promote teaming arrangements between 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, Industry Days are open only to registered potential competitors.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The DARPA Surgical Competition Special Notice does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or abstracts. This announcement is issued solely for information purposes and is not a Request for Information (RFI). Since this is not an RFI, no submission against this notice is required or will be accepted by the Government. Attending the Industry Day in-person or viewing the webcast is voluntary and not required to participate in the DARPA Surgical Competition.