DARPA Seeks Revolutionary Ideas from Early Career Researchers at US Academic Institutions

Researchers in academia and from equivalent positions at non-profit research institutions may submit executive summaries and proposals to almost two dozen new technical topics recently released in DARPA’s latest Young Faculty Award (YFA) research announcement. This announcement includes an additional open topic covering six thrust areas specific to DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO).

Established in 2006, the Young Faculty Award (YFA) program aims to identify and engage rising academics in early-career research positions — particularly those without prior DARPA funding — and expose them to Department of Defense (DOD) needs and DARPA’s mission to create and prevent technological surprise. The YFA program provides high-impact funding to researchers at U.S. institutions early in their careers to advance innovative research enabling transformative DOD capabilities. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to build a pipeline for the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will focus a significant portion of their career on DOD and national security issues.

“We’re eager to receive innovative research ideas to help solve a broad array of technical challenges related to national security,” said Dr. Rohith Chandrasekar, from DARPA’s Defense Sciences office who oversees the YFA program. “The 2024 YFA research areas are extremely diverse, spanning topics across all six DARPA technical offices, covering topics dealing with microphysiological systems, artificial intelligence, large language models, power generation, energetics development, underwater propulsion, space tech, quantum information science, and electromagnetic interference, to name just a few. In addition, the 2024 YFA announcement includes an open topic that spans DSO’s six technical thrust areas. We encourage early-career researchers to review all the topics and provide us an executive summary for feedback before submitting a full proposal. While an executive summary is not required to submit a proposal, we strongly recommend it to minimize the time, effort, and expense of submitting a full proposal that may be out of scope.”

For eligibility information, full listing and description of topic areas, submission process details, and deadlines for executive summaries and proposals, visit the 2024 YFA Research Announcement at SAM.gov: https://sam.gov/opp/f2bf469a50e7433fa758f0125831754b/view or Grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/350899.

For more information on the YFA program, visit: https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/for-universities/young-faculty-award.

In addition to the YFA program, DARPA has opportunities for early-career researchers to participate in the DARPA Innovation Fellowship and periodically, the DARPA Risers program. To learn more, visit: https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/for-universities