IARPA LocUS — ETA OTA
Funds United States researchers mapping video origin from combined visual and audio clues when metadata is absent.
LocUS (Location Using Sound) is a research program operated by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) under the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The program is part of IARPA's Emerging Technology Accelerator (ETA) framework, which was launched in January 2026 with a Proposers' Day in Rockville, Maryland attended by more than 550 participants. LocUS addresses a specific intelligence gap: determining where video footage was captured when embedded metadata — such as GPS coordinates — is absent or has been stripped. The program funds development of automated geolocation capabilities that combine audio signals and visual content to identify filming locations in multimedia. Awards are Prototype Other Transaction Agreements issued under solicitation DOI-ETA-FY26-30, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Eligible prime contractors must be U.S.-based, and may include commercial companies, universities, nonprofits, and non-traditional defense contractors. Non-U.S. organizations are permitted only in a sub-contractor role within a U.S.-led team. Government agencies, FFRDCs, and UARCs are ineligible as primes. To qualify under the OTA mechanism, teams must satisfy at least one criterion: significant non-traditional contractor participation, small-business or non-traditional exclusivity, or at least one-third non-federal cost-sharing. No classified proposals are permitted, and facility construction or commercialization costs cannot be charged to the award. Typical ETA program awards range from $1 million to $5 million with a performance period of 12–24 months.
The application process is white-paper-first: teams submit an initial white paper reviewed for technical merit before full proposal invitations are issued. The first white-paper deadline was June 30, 2026, with rolling submissions continuing after the Q&A posting period until the program closes. Evaluation criteria cover innovation, technical merit, feasibility, team capabilities, risk mitigation, and IP terms that support government transition. Teams with expertise in audio fingerprinting, visual geolocation, and multimodal AI are well positioned to compete.
Automated geolocation of video content using combined audio and visual signals, enabling analysts to determine where footage was captured even when embedded metadata is absent.
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