Cornucopia

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to award contracts, agreements, or transactions through its Broad Agency Announcement HR001122S0012 to develop field-deployable systems capable of on-demand production of nutritious foods from engineered microbes, air, water, and electricity. Proposals must address domesticating microbes for human consumption, tailoring foods' sensory properties, and demonstrating integrated systems meeting defined calorie, nutrient and production metrics within two use case scenarios over three program phases, with abstracts due January 6, 2022 and full proposals due February 22, 2022.

There is no set-aside designation. Research proposals should advance areas including basic life and medical sciences (NAICS 541715), food technology and technical consulting services (NAICS 541690), and research and development in physical, engineering, and life sciences (PSC R425). Estimated budgets may support multiple awards up to $10 million each for a 48-month period to develop deployable food production systems meeting military and humanitarian use case requirements of daily nutritional support for 14 personnel over 45 days and 100 civilians over 21 days.