DARPA Seeks Innovative Proposals from Early Career Researchers at US Institutions

DARPA’s Young Faculty Award (YFA) program seeks to identify and engage junior faculty researchers — emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding — and expose them to DoD needs and DARPA’s program development process.

DARPA’s new 2025 Young Faculty Award (YFA) solicitation seeks individual principal investigator abstracts and proposals across an array of technical areas representing research and development thrusts from multiple DARPA technical offices.

“For the DARPA YFA 2025 solicitation, we have switched to an open-topic format,” said Dr. Jinendra Ranka, director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “Rather than prescribe specific projects as has been done in the past, this year we’re using the research thrusts of several DARPA tech offices as the topic areas."

"We ask that proposed ideas simply align to an office topic, technical (thrust) area, and keyword listed in the solicitation. DARPA is constantly scouring the R&D and tech landscape for powerful ideas to create the next revolutionary breakthrough for national security, and we’re eager to see if this open approach results in some truly unique and potentially world-changing concepts.”

DARPA will make awards to the 2025 YFA solicitation via cooperative agreements rather than grants to align with the agency’s fast-paced program model.

Established in 2006, the Young Faculty Award program aims to identify and engage rising academics in early-career research positions — focused on those with minimal 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 and mentorship 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.

The YFA research announcement is open to researchers at U.S. universities and from equivalent positions at U.S. nonprofit research institutions. DARPA strongly encourages proposers to first submit an executive summary before submitting a full proposal. As YFA is considered a mentorship program, the agency strongly discourages submitting a proposal if DARPA does not recommend a proposal for submission based on the executive summary. 

Executive summaries are due Nov. 18, 2024, at 4 p.m. ET. Full proposals are due Feb. 5, 2025, at 4 p.m. ET. A target start date of August 2025 may be assumed for planning purposes.

Potential applicants are encouraged to carefully consider the DARPA office, technical area, and keywords before submission. Each submission (executive summary or full proposal) must specify a single DARPA office topic, technical area, and keyword for submission.

The participating DARPA office open topic areas with technical keywords for 2025 are as follows:

1. Defense Sciences Office (DSO)
   • Physical Sciences: Open quantum systems, quantum-enhanced sensing, novel qubit platforms, complex chemical systems, nuclear systems and beams, nuclear particle/photon interactions, nonequilibrium thermodynamics
   • Materials Science: Dynamically programmable matter, nonplanar integration of piezoelectric transducers, location-specific microstructure control, autonomous materials research, interlocking metasurfaces, nanofluidics for reaction control
   • Mathematics, Computation, and Processing: Quantum-classical hybrid computing, cryptography, compute in sensor, interpretable reinforcement learning, data-driven hypothesis generation
   • Collective Intelligence: Interpretable reinforcement learning, logical artificial intelligence (AI), AI knowledge representation
2. Microsystems Technology Office (MTO)
   • Photonics: high harmonic generation, attosecond spectroscopy, high-energy radiation sources, utilizing electrically injected small form factor optical sources (e.g., nanolasers); extreme environments
   • Quantum microsystems: energy-efficient milliKelvin cryogenic coolers; insulating techniques for cryogenic interconnects
   • Organic microsystems: nano-scale self-assembly; biological nanofabrication
   • Materials and manufacturing: semiconductor growth techniques that are independent of substrate lattice-constant; process modeling and simulation; in situ characterization methods for growth and/or processing; real-time control of radiative properties; security-aware integrated circuit design; microscale radiation detection
3. Information Innovation Office (I2O)
   • Proficient artificial intelligence (AI)
   • Resilient, adaptable, and secure systems
   • Advantage in cyber
   • Confidence in the information domain
   • The following key words apply to all thrust areas: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral and Cognitive Science, Computer Vision, Cyber, Data, Formal Methods, Human-Machine Interaction, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Networking, Privacy, Resilience, Security, Trust.
4. Tactical Technology Office (TTO)
   • Platform Innovation: Design, engineer, and demonstrate new and innovative platforms at credible scale, proving new enabling technologies that lead to disruptive systems concepts.
     Key Areas of Interest: Platform performance enhancements, multi-domain operation enablers, platforms that improve logistics, VLEO operation enablers, attritable platforms, domain persistence, novel platform control methods.
   • Missionized Autonomy: Apply autonomy as a force multiplier to enable the scaling of massed effects for defense applications, focusing on trustworthiness, security, heterogenous platform cooperation, and one-to-many human-systems interfaces.
     Key Areas of Interest: Autonomy applications, decision enablers, swarm and counter-swarm, autonomy behaviors that enable novel platforms, multi-agent teaming and collaboration
   • Managing Complexity: Reduce risk and cost through new methods of design space exploration and high-capacity computing that provide more efficient and complete insight on system architectures, deliver visibility into higher-order interactions, and enable focused and efficient testing.
     Key Areas of Interest: Autonomy applications, decision enablers, swarm and counter-swarm, autonomy behaviors that enable novel platforms, multi-agent teaming and collaboration
   • Freedom’s Forge 2.0: Make manufacturing, maintainability, and testing processes portable, affordable, scalable, and responsive. Key Areas of Interest: Enablers for scaling of manufacturing, additive manufacturing applications, low-cost avionics and propulsion, production of energetics, export control triage
   • Disruptive Emergent Technology: Examine the potential for emergent technology to disrupt the tactical battlefield in non-obvious ways. Of particular interest are submissions that identify fundamental disruptions which could provide the foundation for future DARPA programs or DARPA/TTO focus areas. Key Areas of Interest: Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) techniques and tools, flow control, tactical power (production, harvesting, storage, and distribution), Imaging

For full eligibility information, submission process, and further details visit the 2025 YFA Research Announcement on SAM.gov or on Grants.gov.

Learn more about the YFA program