ONHS Report: DARPA-PS-26-115

MXO Office-wide Innovative Solutions Opening

Solicitation ID: DARPA-PS-26-115

Agency: DARPA/MXO

Type: Solicitation

Deadline: 2027-06-04T16:00:00 ET

Eligibility: Maybe (Team Member/MIPR)

Funding: N/A

Doc Type: PS

Clearance: CUI

Program Manager: DARPA-PS-26-115@darpa.mil

Last Updated: 2026-05-21 16:03

Analyzed File: DARPA-PS-26-115.pdf

Eligibility Reasoning

If an FFRDC... [is] interested in this solicitation, either as a prime or a subcontractor, they should contact the Agency Point of Contact (POC)... to discuss potential participation... DARPA, under this solicitation, will not award separate contracts to FFRDCs as prime or subawardees but will instead leverage their existing sponsors' agreements... Proposals that include a... FFRDC... as a subcontractor may also be deemed non-conforming unless... cost proposals must exclude their funding, as DARPA will not fund them through the prime.

Note: This is an AI-generated summary...

Summary

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Multi X Office (MXO) has issued an Office-wide Innovative Solutions Opening (DARPA-PS-26-115), a long-term open call for revolutionary research ideas that fall outside the scope of existing DARPA programs. The solicitation explicitly excludes research leading to only evolutionary improvements. A two-step submission process is required: proposers must first submit an abstract on a rolling basis until April 23, 2027, and will only be eligible to submit a full proposal upon receiving a government invitation. The technical areas of interest are divided into three thrusts: (1) Materials and components beyond CMOS to create new resilient and secure technological foundations; (2) Tools and processes to support indigenous development, create domestic supply chains, and reduce foreign reliance; and (3) New modalities, including novel physics and hybrid approaches, to achieve mission effects in sensing, computing, and communication. Multiple awards are anticipated in the form of Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) and Experimental Transaction Agreements (ETAs), with the solicitation closing on June 4, 2027.

Overall Technical Areas

Advanced Materials ScienceBeyond-CMOS TechnologiesSecure Hardware DesignNovel Component TechnologiesScalable Hardware ProductionAdvanced Manufacturing ProcessesIndigenous Technology DevelopmentNovel Sensing ModalitiesAdvanced Computing ParadigmsResilient Communication SystemsApplied Physics for DevicesHybrid Electronic-Physical SystemsMicrosystems Technology

Probable LBNL Areas

CSAEESAESAETALDPSA

Focus Areas

Example Priorities:

MXO seeks to establish new technological beyond-CMOS foundations that enable systems to be resilient, secure, and resistant to adversarial attacks.
The goal is to harness American ingenuity to develop and scale next-generation materials and component technologies that deliver system-level assurance.
MXO is interested in ideas that invent and enable the scalable production of foundational hardware capable of underpinning enduring military and economic advantage.

Specific Technical Skills:

Materials ScienceBeyond-CMOS TechnologiesMicroelectronicsDevice PhysicsComponent IntegrationSystem-Level AssuranceHardware SecurityScalable Manufacturing

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Sayeef Salahuddin	0.72	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics
Daryl Chrzan	0.72	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics
Ran Cheng	0.71
Alp Sipahigil	0.71	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics
Carolin Sutter-Fella	0.71	ESA \| MF \| MF Inorganic Facility
Junqiao Wu	0.71	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics
Georgios Michelogiannakis	0.71	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science
Tara Mishra	0.71	ESA \| MF \| MF NCEM Facility
Alex Newkirk	0.71	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg & Industrial App Dpt
Jeffrey Urban	0.71	ESA \| MF \| MF Inorganic Facility

Example Priorities:

MXO aims to strengthen industrial resilience by advancing new tools, processes, and capabilities that support domestic development, create entirely new and indigenous supply chains, and/or reduce reliance on vulnerable supply chains.
The office is interested in ideas that help establish new technology sectors, affirm industrial sovereignty, and enable the United States to design, build, and scale critical technologies at home.
Indigenous processes, tools, and material supply chains are essential to ensure national and economic security.

Specific Technical Skills:

Supply Chain SecurityIndustrial ResilienceProcess EngineeringAdvanced ManufacturingDomestic SourcingTechnology SovereigntyEconomic SecurityMaterials Logistics

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Thomas Hendrickson	0.74	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Alex Newkirk	0.73	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg & Industrial App Dpt
Nica Campbell	0.72	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Sunhee Baik	0.72	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Energy Markets & Policy
Peng Peng	0.71	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Jennifer Stokes-Draut	0.71	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Nihan Karali	0.71	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Sustainable Energy Dept
Unique Karki	0.71	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg & Industrial App Dpt
Prakash Rao	0.70	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg & Industrial App Dpt
Guoying Chen	0.70	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt

Example Priorities:

MXO seeks to expand the range of technological modalities available to deliver mission effects in ways that are more resilient to current and emerging vulnerabilities.
This includes, but is not limited to, more performant devices that leverage new underlying physics, hybrid approaches that exploit the strengths of electronics and non-electronics to produce effects that are greater that the sum of its parts, and entirely new approaches to achieve mission effects that breakthrough existing paradigms’ constraints.
The office is interested in ideas that expand beyond a single modality-based approach to enable reliable, uninterrupted mission effects in future conflicts.

Specific Technical Skills:

Applied PhysicsHybrid Systems EngineeringNovel Sensing ModalitiesNon-Electronic SystemsAdvanced CommunicationsParadigm-Shifting ConceptsResilient OperationsMulti-Domain Technologies

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Alp Sipahigil	0.71	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics
Shawn Tornga	0.70	LD \| LD \| ONHS
Sunhee Baik	0.70	ETA \| Energy Analysis & Env. Impacts \| Energy Markets & Policy
Hannah Parrilla	0.70	PSA \| NSD \| ANP
Wei Liu	0.70	PSA \| ATAP \| BACI
Zhao Hao	0.70	EESA \| EG \| Geochemistry Dept
Andre Santos	0.70	EESA \| CESD \| Integrated Ecosystem Sciences
Jayson Vavrek	0.69	PSA \| NSD \| ANP
Linqing Luo	0.69	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept
Reynold Cooper	0.69	PSA \| NSD \| ANP

Potential LBNL PIs (Overall)

Note on PI Matching: These suggestions are generated through an AI-driven semantic analysis of LBNL staff profiles.

Name	Score	Organization
Kin Yu	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Advanced Materials Science
Lane Martin	0.77	· Novel Component Technologies
Angelos Ioannou	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · Advanced Computing Paradigms
Scott Beamer	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · Scalable Hardware Production
Minok Park	0.75	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Luisa Gonzalez	0.75	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · Beyond-CMOS Technologies
Venkatesh Akella	0.74	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Applications · Secure Hardware Design
Abhi Rajagopala	0.74	CSA \| NERSC \| HPC Technology Department · Hybrid Electronic-Physical Systems
Prabal Dutta	0.73	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg Technologies Dept · Resilient Communication Systems
Costas P. Grigoropoulos	0.73	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Microsystems Technology

Fundamental Research Exemption (FRE)

For awards where the work is considered fundamental research, the contractor will not have to implement the aforementioned requirements and safeguards. However, should the nature of the work change during performance of the award, work not considered fundamental research will be subject to these requirements.