Convergence Special Notice

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office announced an Industry Day for the Convergence program on August 20, 2026, with registration closing August 12, 2026, at 12:00 PM EDT. The in-person-only event, held at the DARPA Conference Center in Arlington, Virginia, is limited to three representatives per organization and will operate at the Controlled Unclassified Information level with advance security vetting required.

The Convergence program integrates biology and engineering to develop deployable environmental microbial biosensors for detecting chemical threat agents in operational and austere environments. Development is structured across four parallel tiers: component design (Tier 3), integrated payload development (Tier 2), full system integration in a microbial chassis (Tier 1), and regulatory approval readiness (Tier 0). The program seeks to enable standoff detection using non-pathogenic microbial consortia, modularize biosensor input and output architecture, and establish an open-architecture, composable design pipeline with industrial deployment capability.

Interested organizations may submit single-slide lightning talk presentations in PDF format by August 16, 2026, at 4:00 PM EDT to facilitate teaming arrangements. Lightning talks must include principal investigator name and institution, team composition, capability overview, applicable tier designation, technical strengths, relevant facilities, contact information, and a graphical abstract depicting the problem statement, proposed approach, and team strengths. One-on-one meetings with the Program Manager are available from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT on Industry Day. Participation is strongly encouraged for small businesses, academic institutions, and first-time government contractors. A formal Broad Agency Announcement is anticipated for August 2026 on SAM.gov. All attendees must submit DARPA eForm 104 by August 12, 2026, to verify U.S. Persons status.