TTO SOLICITATIONS
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.
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: 04/11/08
Title: DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) - Innovative Systems for Military Systems
Announcement#: BAA08-31
Fedbizopps Reference: April 11, 2008
Modification 1: April 11, 2008
Title: Hypersonic Testbed
Announcement#: PS08-02
Fedbizopps Reference: March 3, 2008
Modification 1: March 13, 2008
Solicitation 01: March 3, 2008
Amendment 01: March 13, 2008
Amendment 02: March 21, 2008
Title: FAST
Announcement#: BAA07-65
Industry Day Conference Announcement: September 12, 2007
Industry Day Briefings
FAST Q&A: October 2, 2007
FAST Study Final Review
Title: Rapid Eye
Announcement#: BAA07-57
Industry Day Conference Announcement: July 25, 2007
Industry Day Briefings
Industry Day List of Attendees
Rapid Eye Q&A: January 8, 2008
Rapid Eye Cost Tables
Title: System F6
Announcement#: BAA07-31
FedBizOpps Reference : July 16, 2007
Response Date: July 15, 2008
Archive Date:
July 16, 2008
Industry Day Conference Announcement: July 24, 2007
Industry Day Classified Conference Announcement: July 25, 2007
Industry Day Briefing - Dr. Owen
Industry Day Briefing - Mr. Glista
Industry Day Briefing - Mr. McLean
Industry Day List of Attendees (Unclassified) Industry Day Capabilities Matrix
F6 Q&A: August 14, 2007
F6 Q&A Round 2: August 23, 2007
F6 Q&A Round 3: August 23, 2007
F6 Q&A Round 4: August 31, 2007
Title: A -- VULTURE Program
Announcement#: BAA07-51
FedBizOpps Reference: July 31, 2007
Response Date: September 14, 2007
Archive Date: July 31, 2008
Industry Day Briefs
Industry Day Attendees
VULTURE Q&A: September 7, 2007
VULTURE Model Agreement
VULTURE Cost Tables
Title: DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) Innovative Tactical Technologies Announcement#: BAA07-20
FedBizOpps Reference: February 22, 2007
Topics of Interest: February 22, 2007
Response Date: February 28, 2008
Archive Date: April 30, 2008
