DARPA Defense Sciences Office

DARPA DSO Office-wide BAA

Funds United States defense science ideas with high-security relevance across devices, systems, and cross-domain innovation.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) issues an annual Office-wide Broad Agency Announcement — HR001125S0013 for the current cycle — as its primary mechanism for accepting proposals for revolutionary advances in science, devices, and systems with national-security relevance. DSO occupies DARPA's most foundational research role, funding work in physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, sensing, photonics, quantum science, and emerging multidisciplinary areas. The BAA is refreshed annually with updated technical areas of interest and accepts submissions year-round until the annual close date.

Award sizes span from approximately $500,000 for focused study contracts to $30 million for multi-year programs, with a pool estimated at $400 million across the office's annual portfolio. Eligible performers include US-registered for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, and research organisations; TRL 1–5 proposals are within scope. Individual applicants and civilian-only projects without defense relevance are not eligible. The standard two-stage process applies: performers submit an Executive Summary first, and DARPA invites selected performers to submit a Full Proposal. Cost share is not required but may be considered a positive evaluation factor.

Winning DSO proposals typically identify a specific scientific barrier that, if solved, would enable a qualitatively new defense capability — not incremental improvements to existing approaches. Funding instruments include procurement contracts, cooperative agreements, and Other Transactions. Foreign-component restrictions and security review apply under standard DARPA contract terms. Applicants must be registered on SAM.gov and should consult the current BAA text for the specific technical areas refreshed for the active cycle.