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Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology (QuEST)
Program Manager and PoC: Dr. Jagdeep Shah
Frequently Asked Questions
Q : Can you give us any guidance as to what you’re looking for in a successful proposal?
A : The first and best guidance is to read the BAA solicitation again. The language was carefully chosen and defines the problem set and DARPA’s research goals/objectives as well as they can be.
We can provide some additional clarification to the BAA solicitation;
- The solicitation calls for innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances and specifically rejects research which primarily results in incremental improvement to the existing knowledge.
- No specific technologies, topics, or ideas that fall within the scope of the BAA have been ruled in or out. But the solicitation expresses particular interest in research that impacts the entire field or across a wide range of physical implementations.
- The solicitation calls for the proposer to consider an important outstanding challenge (or set of challenges) in the field of quantum information science (identify challenges), to explain why you consider this an important outstanding challenge (impact if successful), to describe in detail your plan to find a solution to this challenge (address challenges), and to clearly state periodic success criteria (performance metrics) that will indicate that the proposer has met (or is on the way to meeting) the challenge.
- The proposal can be experimental, theoretical, or both. The solicitations envision a close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists so that novel theoretical concepts related to quantum information science may be developed and validated experimentally.
Q : Does "my idea or technology" fit what you are looking for?
A : We are unable to comment as to whether your specific idea is a suitable response to the BAA solicitation. Your proposal must convince the review committee that it matches the goals outlined in the BAA.
Q : Is a unified, broad approach or a number of smaller, related interdependent proposals preferred?
A : Proposers should determine which approach will enable them to best meet the goals in the BAA effectively and efficiently. The teaming arrangements should be commensurate with the scope of the proposed effort. Please note that the government may elect to fund only certain proposed tasks. As such, proposers should, where applicable, separately price out each task in their cost volume. As per page 5, part 2, section II Award Information, the “Government reserves the right to select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this solicitation.”