DARPA Invites Proposals for AI Biotechnology Pitch Days Dec. 5-6

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.

“AI BTO seeks to fund proposals that catalyze the formation of future research projects by clarifying the opportunity space and de-risking technical barriers to achieving high impact,” said BTO Director Dr. Michael Koeris. “To this end, the office is providing $4.5 million to support up to 45 revolutionary catalyst projects and will be finalizing research agreements day of. We look forward to reviewing the novel biotechnology approaches to further our national security mission.”

BTO leadership is interested in engaging first-time or non-traditional proposers and seeks revolutionary approaches to emerging or anticipated Department of Defense challenges. During these events, BTO will introduce five new overarching topics that align with AI/ML applications:

• Prediction and Health
• Autonomous Science
• Biomanufacturing/Synthetic Biology
• Challenges with Scale
• Exciting Frontiers

Pitch Days

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.

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.

Register to submit a white paper 

The deadline is Tuesday, October 15, 2024 by 12:00PM EDT. Late applications will not be accepted.

Additional information is available on SAM.gov.

Editor’s Note: This update was edited on 9/25/24 to reflect the correct day of the week for white paper submission.

Editor’s Note: This update was edited on 10/9/24 to reflect an updated white paper submission deadline and revised SAM.gov link.