Program Announcement: Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering (A3ML)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has issued a Special Notice for the Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering (A3ML) program, which aims to transform current anti-money laundering practices through advanced technological approaches. The notice was posted on December 18, 2024, with a due date of January 17, 2025, and is being managed through DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O). The program seeks to develop sophisticated algorithmic methods that can analyze financial transaction graphs and detect suspicious patterns more effectively than existing manual processes. This initiative represents a significant shift towards proactive and predictive financial crime detection methodologies. The Special Notice is designed to introduce potential performers to an upcoming comprehensive program solicitation that will be published on sam.gov.

The primary objective of the A3ML program is to revolutionize anti-money laundering techniques by creating adaptive algorithms capable of learning and anticipating illicit financial behaviors. DARPA is offering free resources through DARPAConnect to help potential performers understand the proposal process, including guidance on award vehicles and solicitation details. The program will focus on developing machine-readable formats for representing complex financial crime patterns that can be easily interpreted by human analysts. While the Special Notice does not constitute a formal solicitation and will not accept submissions at this stage, it signals DARPA's intent to pursue innovative research in financial crime detection technologies. Potential contractors in the Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences sector (NAICS 541715) with expertise in algorithmic analysis, machine learning, and financial transaction tracking are likely to be most suited for this opportunity. The program is specifically categorized under National Defense R&D Services with an applied research focus.