Contracting Office Address

Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203-1714, UNITED STATES

Description

SYNTHETIC EVOLVABLE MATERIALS, BAA 07-21 Addendum 4;
Full Proposals Due: May 22, 2007, no later than 4:00PM ET. TECHNICAL POCs:
Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin, DARPA/DSO; Ph: (703) 248-1509; or
Dr. Leo Christodoulou, DARPA/DSO; Ph: (703) 696-2374;
Email: baa07-21@darpa.mil;
URL: http://www.darpa.mil/dso/solicitations/solicit.htm;
Website Submission: https://www.sainc.com/dsobaa/

DESCRIPTION
(Note: This BAA Addendum 4 is submitted as a Special Focus Area as described in the original BAA, 07-21.)

The design and manufacture of advanced materials and material systems is critical to all DoD systems. DARPA seeks innovative proposals for the development of a new class of synthetic evolvable materials that will enable radical new capabilities in the functionality, survivability, lethality, and manufacturability of materials for military systems. For the purposes of this BAA, synthetic evolvable materials are defined as non-biological materials that utilize environmental cues to autonomously self-organize, self-propagate, and self-select specific internal configurations for the purposes of optimizing or maintaining system functionality under dynamically changing conditions. Synthetic evolvable materials will require minimal energy input to function, e.g., exhibit auto-amplification, and have an intrinsic "memory" or an embedded instruction set that encodes the present state of the material. We envision that synthetic evolvable materials will have the intrinsic capacity to autonomously adapt their structure/properties to changing external conditions over a broad range of lengthscales and timescales as required. This is akin to the way that biological materials exhibit functionalities such as antigen/antibiotic resistance, metabolic control, and reflexes.

Heterogeneous combinations of sensing materials, actuators, processing electronics, and power sources are not considered in this BAA.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

The concept of evolvable materials is very broad and encompasses a diverse set of scientific and engineering disciplines. To narrow down the concept and to focus initial efforts in this broad area, DARPA is seeking proposals that address one or more of the following technical topics:

1) Development of nonequilibrium material systems: Many biological systems are known to operate in a nonequilibrium state. This enables them to be very agile and responsive to environmental cues and allows them to change states with only minimal energy input. One aspect of this BAA is to develop the theoretical basis and experimental demonstration of synthetic material systems that utilize nonequilibrium dynamics productively for the purpose of changing state in response to environmental cues.

2) Self-organizing, self-propagating, and self-selecting networks: The concept of self-organization and self-assembly is central to the synthesis of biological materials. Furthermore, biological networks often incorporate signaling processes that consist of a cascade of events triggered by energy input at one node of the network. In this manner, biological systems can propagate information over long distances with modest energy input. One goal of this BAA is to develop synthetic analogs to self-organizing, self-propagating, and self-selecting networks. Such a development may enable new means of information transfer in non-biological material systems or new means of introducing large changes in a system or network with only small amounts of energy input at a discrete location, e.g., autoamplification.

3) Response to environmental cues: Environmental pressures cause adaptation in biological systems over an immense range of time scales. Examples of short time scale response include the thermal control system of a warm-blooded animal that causes perspiration in response to elevated external temperature. Over long time scales, environmental pressures can cause adaptation of whole populations to new conditions. In all of these cases, the adaptation is intrinsic to the biological system. Through this BAA, DARPA seeks to incorporate intrinsic changes to environmental cues into synthetic material systems. The purpose of these changes would be to optimize functionality and performance at the system level. Once again, we emphasize that the responsive properties of evolvable materials must be intrinsic, and not the result of a heterogeneous combination of sensors, actuators, and external control systems.

PROGRAM GOALS AND MILESTONES

This request is for modestly priced proposals of not more than 6 months in length that are focused exclusively on the elements described above. It is expected that the total funding under this BAA Addendum 4 will be at the level of $1M to $2M and a total of 3-6 awards will be made. The success of these individual efforts will be a major factor in determining whether a more extensive DARPA program in this area is initiated. The government reserves the right to fund no proposals under this BAA or award without discussions.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Full Proposal Submission Guidelines
Full proposal submissions must follow the guidelines set forth in BAA 07-21. Full proposals must be received by 4:00 PM ET, May 22, 2007. Proposals received after this time will not be considered.

The technical volume of the full proposal must include the following:

1) Notional concept for the synthetic evolvable material system.
2) A clear discussion of the relevance of the notional concept to the program component(s) discussed above.
3) Detailed supporting analysis of the scientific and technical challenges associated with the development of the evolvable material system.
4) A discussion of the DoD impact of the proposed evolvable material system.
5) Listing of team members, relevant capabilities, and a management plan.
6) Budget for a 6-month effort.
7) A listing of intermediate milestones and 6-month milestones for the effort.

Evaluation of Proposals
Evaluation of the proposals will be in accordance with BAA 07-21. For general administrative questions, please refer to the original FEDBIZOPPS solicitation, BAA07-21, of February 14, 2007: http://www.darpa.mil/dso/solicitations/solicit.htm.

Web Address for Proposal Submission: https://www.sainc.com/dsobaa/.

Address for Proposal Submission:
DARPA/DSO
ATTN: BAA07-21, Addendum 4, Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin
3701 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714

GENERAL INFORMATION
In all correspondence, reference BAA 07-21, Addendum 4

TECHNICAL POINTS OF CONTACT
Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin, DARPA/DSO; Phone: (703) 248-1509; Email: Mitchell.Zakin@darpa.mil

Alternate POC
Dr. Leo Christodoulou, DARPA/DSO; Phone: (703) 696-2374; Email: Leo.Christodoulou@darpa.mil

Original Point of Contact

Barbara McQuiston, Deputy Director, DSO, Phone 703-526-4759, Fax 703-248-1916, Email Barbara.McQuiston@darpa.mil

Current Point of Contact

Mitchell Zakin, Program Manager, DSO, Phone 703-248-1509, Fax 703-807-1743, Email Mitchell.Zakin@darpa.mil - Leo Christodoulou, DARPA Program Manager, Phone 703-696-2374, Fax 571-218-4553, Email none