Our Advanced Research Concepts (ARC) initiative is designed to explore – and seize – the potential within emerging fields of scientific inquiry to result in game-changing technologies for national security applications.
Issued by our Defense Sciences Office, ARC projects address topics of interest across all technical offices, seeking answers to high-risk, high-reward questions and assessing the impact of further investment on problems of importance to national security.
Managed by DARPA Innovation Fellows, ARC enables rapid analysis of a high volume of promising new ideas by making targeted investments that are purposely limited in scope. Funding supports one full-time-equivalent (FTE) scientist or engineer to explore their idea for one year. During each solicitation period, we evaluate ideas on a rolling basis and issue contracts for selected proposals within weeks.
Timeline and funding
ARC topics are designed for ideas that take one year to validate. The expected level of effort for a proposed research concept is one full-time equivalent (FTE) and 12 months. Sub-awardees are not permitted. The maximum funding is $300,000.
Explore open topics
ARC opportunities remain open for up to six months.
- COMPASS: Critical Orientation of Mathematics to Produce Advancements in Science and Security
- CRYSTAL: Crystal Substrate Bonding Technologies and Algorithms
- MAGICS: Methodological Advancements for Generalizable Insights into Complex Systems
Put your best idea forward
To respond to an open ARC topic:
- Review the ARC Exploration Announcement. This master solicitation includes an abstract template and model contract.
- Review the specific topic solicitation. This describes the opportunity, defines the research question, and explains how to submit an abstract.
- Prepare and submit a five-page abstract that provides a technical description of your idea.
- If selected for further evaluation, you will be invited to submit an oral proposal package and present your idea to DARPA. Successful proposals result in a Research Other Transaction (OT) award.
What success looks like
The best way to understand ARC opportunities is to explore previous projects. Each of these efforts resulted from an ambitious proposal and plan for answering a fundamental research question:
- CKC: Collaborative Knowledge Curation
- DUF: Discovering Unknome Function
- FAARM: Fuel Access Anywhere, Regardless of Means
- GLUE: Grip Likelihood in Underwater Environments
- HYBRIDS: Hybridizing Biology and Robotics through Integration for Deployable Systems
- IMPAQT: Imaging Practical Applications for a Quantum Tomorrow
- INSPIRE: Investigating how Neurological Systems Process Information in Reality
- QUAMELEON: Quantum Materials Engineering Using Electromagnetic Fields
- SAFRON: Safe and Assured Foundation Robots for Open eNvironments
- SPREE: Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements