TTO CLOSED SOLICITATIONS ARCHIVE
Interfacing with TTO
If you have a great idea, we want you to bring it to TTO. The best way to formally bring an idea to TTO is to respond to a solicitation, usually a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) published in the Commerce Business Daily. Information on BAAs for all DARPA technology offices can be obtained from the DARPA Solicitations page. Alternatively, you may send in a two or three page white paper (no boilerplate) to the relevant program manager (PM) or to DARPA/TTO, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203. Be sure to include your mailing address, email address, telephone number, and fax number so that the appropriate DARPA program manager can contact you.
To win a DARPA award, there must first be a program. While contractors may think in terms of contracts, at DARPA we tend to think in terms of programs (collections of contracts focused on a common goal) and thrusts (collections of programs with a common theme, often encompassing several offices and PMs). The best time to influence new program ideas is in the spring. A major task of the program manager is to create new programs. They need your help. Only about one in three good new program ideas in DARPA are funded. Historically, about half were internally generated and about half were proposed from outside DARPA. About 20% of DARPA's programs are ramped down each year and new programs, perhaps in quite different technical areas, are started to take their place. DARPA can, when appropriate, provide substantial funding, but we do not fund any technical program area in perpetuity. A DARPA program requires: good technical ideas, contractors who can do the work, customers for the program results, a sufficient budget, and a PM. If there is no DARPA program in your area, the odds of being able to support your proposed work are small.
Because we understand that proposals involve enormous work and expense, TTO BAAs encourage a white paper or preproposal submission. This allows us to give prompt feedback to the proposer on the likelihood of a proposal being selected. Historically, about one-third of the preproposals TTO received resulted in a recommendation for full proposal submission. Of these, about one-third were funded. Note, that because the preproposal screening process sacrifices 100% accuracy for speed, you always have the option of submitting a full proposal. A typical selection process for a $200,000/year contract is:
- The PM solicits proposal abstracts and white papers with a BAA.
- Proposal abstracts are reviewed by the PM and non-binding feedback is given to the proposer.
- The PM and additional procurement officials review proposals according to the evaluation criteria in the BAA.
- Selectable proposals are examined for potential impact on achieving the DARPA program goals. (Think of this as an inner product between scientific quality and relevance to the program and DARPA mission.) Proposals should include a plan for technical success and a plausible transition plan that gets the developed technology and products into the market place.
- A subset of the selectable proposals are chosen based on step 4 and funds availability. The contract negotiation process is initiated.
TTO receives some tens of meters of proposal material per year and the number of proposals per contract dollar is increasing. Each PM receives several meters of proposal material. It is imperative that your proposal begin by highlighting the key technical idea. If it is not apparent in the first three pages, it may well be missed. We want your great ideas, but present them well and succinctly. There are innumerable ways to win a DARPA contract, but over the years we have found three common ways that do NOT work. Examples of approaches that do not win a DARPA contract follow. "We have a highly qualified team and we can do anything you want." (This approach obviously does not present your great ideas.) " The areas of investigation listed in the BAA are really important for the following reasons. . . ." This is great science, and we will do technology transfer by the traditional method of writing high quality papers. Advances in basic science provide the foundation of technology competitiveness."
Another vehicle that can be used to receive DARPA funding is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The SBIR Program consists of three phases: Phase I is a six-month feasibility study, with awards generally at $99,000; Phase II is a two-year proof of principle effort, with awards generally at $375,000. The Department of Defense publishes two solicitations each fiscal year (October and May). DARPA participates in both of these solicitations and generally has between 30 and 60 topics, some of which are TTO-related. DARPA has an estimated budget of $50M each year for SBIR programs. Solicitations are on the web at the following address: http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir. For additional SBIR information, please contact the SBIR helpdesk at 1-866-216-4095.
TTO realizes that to encourage you to bring your best ideas to us, we have to be a quality customer. Because new ideas have a time value, TTO defines as one of our principal quality measures the time from when a proposal arrives at DARPA until the time the contractor can start work. Our best case is 23 calendar days and our worst case was over a year. Six months is the typical turn around time, although work may begin on small contracts in less time or may require more than six months for larger contracts.
Last Updated: 06/05/07
Title: Battlefield Helicopter Emulator Program (BHE)
Announcement#: BAA07-05
FedBizOpps Reference: January 30, 2007
Modification 1: February 21, 2007
Modification 2: March 1, 2007
Proposer Information Pamphlet: January 30, 2007
Response Date: January 29, 2008
Archive Date: February 13, 2008
Title: WALRUS - Global Reach Air Vehicle
Industry Day information
February 11, 2005
Announcement#: PS05-01
FedBizOpps Reference:
January 26, 2005
Modification 1: January 28, 2005
Modification 2: February 11, 2005
Amendment: January 28 2005
Solicitation: February 1, 2005
Response Date: April 1, 2005
Q&A Document: March 23, 2005
Archive Date: January 31, 2006
Title: Innovative Tactical Technology
Announcement#: BAA04-04
FedBizOpps Reference: November 10, 2003
Modification 1: February 2, 2004
Modification 2: October 28, 2004
Response Date: January 31, 2005
Archive Date: January 31, 2006
Title: A -- CROSSHAIRS
Announcement#: BAA04-39
FedBizOpps Reference:
Aug 17, 2004
Solicitation 01: Sep 13, 2004
Modification: Oct 15, 2004
Response Date:
November 12, 2004
Archive Date:
November 27, 2005
Title: A -- Organic Air Vehicle II
Announcement#: HR0011-04-R-0002
FedBizOpps Reference:
Aug 06, 2004
Solicitation 01: Aug 06, 2004
Modification: Aug 09, 2004
Modification 2: Aug 20, 2004
Amendment 01: Aug 20, 2004
Modification 3: September 1, 2004
Modification 4: September 3, 2004
Modification 5: September 10, 2004
Response Date:
September 20, 2004
Archive Date: September 19, 2005
Title: A -- Oblique Flying Wing
Announcement#: SN05-24
FedBizOpps Reference:
May 18, 2005
Response Date: July 21, 2005
Archive Date: August 5, 2005
Title: Large Aperture Space Surveillance (Optical) (LASSO)
Announcement#: BAA04-36
FedBizOpps Reference:
July 09, 2004
Response Date: August 23, 2004
Archive Date: July 9, 2005
Title: FALCON, Phase II, Task 1
Announcement#: SN04-32
FedBizOpps Reference:
April 26, 2004
Response Date: May 14, 2004
Archive Date: May 8, 2005
Title: FALCON, Phase II, Task 1
Announcement#: SN04-31
FedBizOpps Reference:
April 23, 2004
Response Date: May 8, 2004
Archive Date: May 8, 2005
Title: FALCON, Technology Information and Export Control and ITAR Restrictions
for Phase II
Announcement#: SN04-22
FedBizOpps Reference:
March 18, 2004
Response Date: April 30, 2004
Archive Date: May 8, 2005
Title: FALCON, Phase II, Task 1
Announcement#: 04-05
Program Solicitation
04-05
Attachment 9 -
REVISED May 24, 2004
Note on Revised Attachment
9
Question Submission
Instructions
Model OTA Agreement
in 'Word'
Answers to Submitted
Questions 1-32
Response Date: June 7, 2004
Archive Date: May 8, 2005
Title: A-- FALCON, Phase II
Announcement#: SN04-09
FedBizOpps Reference:
December 29, 2003
Response Date: January 21, 2004
Archive Date: May 8, 2005
Title: Innovative Space Payloads and Capabilities
(INSPACE)
Announcement#: BAA03-24
FedBizOpps Reference:
August 29, 2003
Modification 1:
October 24, 2003
Modification 2:
December 12, 2003
Modification 3:
March 15, 2004
First Round Response Date: December 17, 2003
BAA Response Date: September 30, 2004
Archive Date: October 1, 2004
Title: Crosshairs (Sniper Neutralization)
Announcement#: SN03-31
FedBizOpps Reference:
September 23, 2003
Initial Closing/Response Date: October 18, 2003
Final Closing/Archive Date: September 23, 2004
Title: A--FALCON
Announcement#: BAA03-35
FedBizOpps Reference:
July 29, 2003
Proposer Information
Pamphlet
PIP Attachment
1
PIP Attachment
2
PIP Clarification
Amendment 1
to the PIP
Draft Solicitation
Q&As
Additional
Q&As
Phase I Acquisition
Rules of Engagement
Pre-Industry Day Documentation
Response Date:
September 12, 2003
Archive Date: July 29, 2004
