Vice President for Research

DARPA funds the research and development of technologies with the potential for transformational impact, central to delivering on the agency’s mission to create and prevent strategic surprise for national security. The agency’s Biological Technologies Office focuses on the natural world to derive revolutionary capabilities centered on:

• Foundational technologies that promote simulation and prediction of biological systems and outcomes, like simulation, foundational models, and data generation,
• Warfighter readiness, health, and recovery, such as medical countermeasures, diagnostics, health IT and medical devices, and
• Operational support of U.S. forces to enable their execution of missions across the spectrum, ranging from fibers for garments to distributed, point-of-need manufacturing.

To capitalize on these new opportunities and further accelerate the pace of scientific and technological discovery and development, DARPA looks to include targeted and limited-scope investments via an AI BTO solicitation seeking proposals on technologies focused at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

DARPA will host AI BTO Pitch Days on December 5-6, 2024, in the Washington, DC, region to select and award AI BTO catalyst projects. To be considered for AI BTO Pitch Day participation, offerors must submit a short white paper consisting of a technical description of the proposer’s idea in response to one of the focus areas listed above. You can read more here.

DARPA will notify offerors if they are selected for further evaluation via an in-person Pitch Day presentation to a panel of BTO program managers at the AI BTO Pitch Day event.

If selected for award at Pitch Day, DARPA may issue a Research Other Transactions award for one of three award scenarios - $100,000, $200,000, or $300,000. The maximum amount of government funding given to any single proposer will be $300,000.

To submit a white paper, register at https://usg.valideval.com/teams/aibto_2024/signup. The deadline is Wednesday, October 9, 2024 by 4:00PM EDT. Late applications will not be accepted.

Additional information is available on SAM.gov.