Young Faculty Award (YFA) | DARPA RA 17 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for DARPA RA 17 01

The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is a competitive grant opportunity run by DARPA's Defense Sciences Office that is designed to spot and support early-career researchers who show exceptional promise. The program focuses on connecting junior faculty and similarly situated researchers at non-profit research institutions with real Department of Defense and national security problems, with the expectation that awardees will use the funding to launch bold, original research directions that could ultimately enable transformative military capabilities. A major theme of the YFA is not only funding strong science and engineering, but also building a long-term pipeline of researchers who will keep engaging with DoD and national security challenges throughout their careers. DARPA notes particular interest in applicants who have not previously worked as performers on DARPA programs, but the competition is open to any eligible proposer with a genuinely innovative idea.

Eligibility is centered on career stage and U.S. institutional affiliation. By the full proposal deadline, the principal investigator must be either a current tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor, or a tenured faculty member within three years of their tenure date. As an alternative pathway, individuals in equivalent positions at non-profit research institutions may qualify if they are within 12 years of receiving their Ph.D. (excluding personal leaves of absence). Regardless of citizenship status, all proposers must be employed at a U.S. institution. Participation is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and foreign nationals who meet the stated criteria, although non-U.S. participants must be able to comply with any applicable nondisclosure requirements, security rules, export control laws, and other relevant legal restrictions that can arise in defense-related research.

There are also several clear disqualifiers. Prior recipients of a DARPA YFA are not eligible for this or any future YFA competition. Former DARPA Program Managers are not eligible to apply. Researchers based at Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), DoD laboratories, and other government laboratories cannot serve as the principal investigator for a YFA proposal, though they may participate as subcontractors or team members where allowed under DARPA teaming rules. In other words, the lead must come from an eligible U.S. academic or non-profit research institution position, even if parts of the work involve collaboration with government lab personnel through subawards.

The application process emphasizes limiting submissions per person and encouraging early alignment with DARPA interests. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit an executive summary before preparing a full proposal, mainly to help determine whether the concept fits DARPA priorities and to reduce the risk of spending significant effort on an out-of-scope idea. Submission limits are strict: at the executive summary stage, a PI may submit only one executive summary per technical area (TA), and at the full proposal stage, a PI may submit only one full proposal to only one topic under the research announcement. Submitting multiple full proposals can cause all of that PI's submissions to be treated as non-conforming and removed from consideration. While individual PIs are limited this way, there is no cap on how many proposals an institution can submit overall, as long as each submission has a single principal investigator.

The program does not exclude researchers simply because they have received other DARPA funding, as long as it is not a prior YFA award. Applicants who have had non-YFA DARPA awards may still apply. However, proposers must provide a comprehensive list of federal research support, including past, current, and pending awards. This disclosure must include the sponsor, dollar amount, and performance dates for all federally funded research efforts, and it is expected to appear on the submission cover sheet as described in the solicitation instructions.

In terms of administrative details from the listing, this opportunity is a discretionary grant under DARPA Research Announcement DARPA-RA-17-01, categorized under science and technology and other research and development activities (CFDA 12.910). The posting date in the source information is September 7, 2017, with an original closing date of December 4, 2017. The public summary does not provide an award ceiling or the expected number of awards in the extracted fields, but the central value proposition is clear: substantial, high-impact early-career support aimed at launching ambitious research programs that align with defense and national security needs, while also bringing new investigators into DARPA's research ecosystem.

• The DARPA - Defense Sciences Office in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Young Faculty Award (YFA)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.910.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-09-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-12-04. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for DARPA RA 17 01

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