LEARN ABOUT DARPA

DARPA is the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. DARPA's mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security. We fund researchers in industry, universities, government laboratories and elsewhere to conduct high-risk, high-reward research and development projects that will benefit U.S. national security.

DARPA research runs the gamut from conducting basic, fundamental scientific investigations in a laboratory setting to building full-scale prototypes of military systems. We fund research in a wide variety of scientific disciplines — biology, medicine, computer science, chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, material sciences, social sciences, neuroscience, and more.

Our contracted researchers build information systems, aircraft, robots, spacecraft, microcircuits, lasers, sensors, rifles, advanced networks, medical devices, and much, much more. When a DARPA research program is completed, the technology is available to the Military Services and defense contractors for use in military systems.

OBTAIN RESEARCH FUNDING

All of DARPA’s research is performed by researchers in industry, universities, government laboratories or other outside organizations. DARPA program managers develop ideas for research programs and issue solicitations requesting proposals from researchers.

We publish separate solicitations for each research program and issue them throughout the year. All DARPA solicitations are published on the Federal Business Opportunities and/or Grants.gov websites. We select which researchers to fund based on a competitive evaluation of the proposals submitted under each of these solicitations.

For information on obtaining funding from DARPA to conduct research on your idea, visit our Funding Opportunities page.

WORK FOR DARPA

Are you a scientist or engineer with an idea you believe could provide change for the U.S. military? Would you like to lead the country’s most capable experts to make that idea become reality in a period of just a few years? If so, you should consider joining DARPA as a program manager.

DARPA embraces innovative ideas leading to new capabilities for U.S. men and women in uniform. This is just one of the reasons why DARPA is such a great place to work!

TECHNOLOGIES & PROGRAMS

DARPA has five technical offices. Each office focuses on a particular technology area, scientific discipline and/or military mission that will help prevent technological surprise for the U.S. and create technological surprise for our adversaries. Each office website includes sections on the office's solicitations, a list of office programs and information on office personnel.

DARPA looks beyond today’s known technological needs and requirements. DARPA’s approach is to imagine what capabilities a future military commander might need and accelerate those capabilities into being through technology demonstrations. DARPA program managers are constantly in search of revolutionary high-payoff ideas on the far side to create DARPA programs that will bridge the gap between fundamental discoveries and new military capabilities.