IARPA: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

Synopsis

IARPA invests in high-risk, high-payoff research that has the potential to provide our nation with an overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries. This research is parsed among three Offices: Smart Collection, Incisive Analysis, and Safe & Secure Operations. This BAA solicits proposals for the Office of Safe and Secure Operations.

Information technology has qualitatively changed and continues to transform the intelligence enterprise. BAA 10-07 solicits research to enhance mission performance while assuring the security of information at rest and in motion. Examples include:

• Computational methods based on architectures other than digital Turing machines whose attributes are matched to efficient or secure solution of intelligence problems. (e.g. optical, analog, biological, brain-based, quantum, or hybrid computing systems.)
• New approaches to secure transmission of information using optical, electromagnetic, digital packet, chemical, or biological signals. This includes synchronous and asynchronous communications, bandwidth-constrained digital transmission, and triage of large data flows.
• Detection, classification, and mitigation of attempts by adversaries to manipulate electronic data or networked infrastructure.
• Resiliency: approaches to operating securely with imperfect equipment and a compromised network.
• Research to elucidate new approaches to low-energy, low-latency, high-density cryogenic memory as an enabler for superconducting logic as described in IARPA RFI-11-01 (http://www.dni.ic.gov/dni/iarpa/rfi_eecm.html). Proposals should include as many of the following goals as is practical: 1) demonstration of basic memory element at cryogenic temperatures; 2) determination of memory element read/write energies and time; 3) understanding of how memory elements will fit into possible memory hierarchies; 4) plan for controller, with estimates of energy per read/write and latency; 5) system model for use as a main memory, cache, or register, to enable trade-off evaluation; and 6) pilot controller/decoder design and demonstration.

Ideas that substantially enhance the safety or security with which information is collected, stored, analyzed, and disseminated are also encouraged, even if they do not explicitly involve information technology.

This announcement seeks research ideas for topics that are not addressed by emerging or ongoing IARPA programs or other published IARPA solicitations. It is primarily, but not solely, intended for early stage research that may lead to larger, focused programs in the future, so periods of performance will generally not exceed 12 months.

Offerors should demonstrate that their proposed effort has the potential to make revolutionary, rather than incremental, improvements to intelligence capabilities. Research that primarily results in evolutionary improvement to the existing state of practice is specifically excluded.

Contracting Office Address:
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity
Washington, District of Columbia 20511
United States

Primary Point of Contact:
dni-iarpa-baa-10-07@ugov.gov

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