ONHS Report: DARPA-SN-26-103

ERIS Shopping Notice - Thermal Management

Solicitation ID: DARPA-SN-26-103

Agency: DARPA/DSO

Type: Special Notice

Deadline: 2026-09-30T17:00:00 ET

Eligibility: Maybe (Topic Dependent)

Funding: N/A

Doc Type: Other

Clearance: No

Program Manager: ERIS@darpa.mil

Last Updated: 2026-08-01 16:02

Analyzed File: DARPA-SN-26-103.pdf

Eligibility Reasoning

Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis in accordance with the procedures set forth in DARPA-PS-25-05.

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

Summary

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) issued a Shopping Notice (DARPA-SN-26-103) seeking foundational thermal management technologies through the ERIS Marketplace. The goal is to find 'game-changing' mechanisms that disrupt legacy thermodynamic limits in critical DoD systems like hypersonic vehicles, directed energy weapons, and high-performance computing. The notice explicitly rejects incremental improvements to conventional 'brute-force' cooling methods (e.g., pumps, forced convection) and instead seeks a paradigm shift towards novel, intrinsic thermal vectoring architectures. Strong proposals must provide rigorous, physics-based evidence (calculations, modeling) for concepts that treat thermal management as an integrated design variable. Solutions should address current material, structural, and thermodynamic limitations and have broad applicability. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis from July 31, 2026, to September 30, 2026.

Overall Technical Areas

Thermodynamics & Heat TransferAdvanced Materials ScienceHigh-Temperature Materials ChemistryMultiphysics Modeling & SimulationThermomechanical Stress AnalysisAdvanced Manufacturing ProcessesPhase-Change Heat TransferFirst-Principles ModelingTransient Thermal AnalysisStructural & Materials IntegrationHigh-Conductivity MaterialsComputational Fluid DynamicsThermal Vectoring Architectures

Probable LBNL Areas

CSAEESAESAETAPSA

Focus Areas

Example Priorities:

At the material level, high-conductivity materials (such as diamond, graphene, or ultra-high-temperature ceramics) are limited by high-temperature chemical instability, oxidation, or an inability to be fabricated into complex, load-bearing shapes without loss of structural properties.
Proposing teams should possess significant, combined expertise in relevant fields such as materials science... and/or advanced manufacturing.

Specific Technical Skills:

Materials ScienceHigh-Temperature CeramicsAdvanced ManufacturingMetallurgyOxidation ResistanceChemical Stability AnalysisGraphene SynthesisDiamond SynthesisComposite Fabrication

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Francesco Ricci	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Materials Science
Scott Mccormack	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · High-Temperature Ceramics
Kristin Persson	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Materials Science
Oscar Dubon	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Graphene Synthesis
Frances Hellman	0.73	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Metallurgy
Philip Mallon	0.73	PSA \| Engineering \| Mechanical Engineering · Oxidation Resistance
Muhammad Ihsan Ul Haq	0.72	ESA \| MF \| MF Image and Manipulation · Composite Fabrication
Kaushalya Jhuria	0.72	PSA \| ATAP \| FS&IBT · Diamond Synthesis
Minok Park	0.72	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Advanced Manufacturing
Musahid Ahmed	0.72	ESA \| CSD \| Gas Phase · Chemical Stability Analysis

Example Priorities:

DARPA is exploring the development of foundational technologies that enable a paradigm shift away from parasitic 'bolt-on' cooling and toward novel, intrinsic thermal vectoring architectures.
At the structural level, cooling channels suffer from localized thermal-stress concentration, structural delamination, and mechanical failure driven by transient thermal shock and localized temperature gradients across load-bearing members.

Specific Technical Skills:

Structural MechanicsThermal-Stress ModelingFinite Element Analysis (FEA)System IntegrationThermal VectoringLoad-Bearing StructuresSWaP-C2 AnalysisAdditive ManufacturingStructural Design

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Jeremy Smith	0.74	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept · Thermal-Stress Modeling
Cynthia Regnier	0.72	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Whole Building Sys Dept · System Integration
Meriam Gay Bautista-Jurney	0.72	CSA \| AMCR \| Computer Science · System Integration
Ravi Prasher	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Thermal Vectoring
Evan Johnson	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Thermal-Stress Modeling
David McCallen	0.71	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept · Structural Design
Dongwoo Paeng	0.71	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Additive Manufacturing
Suncica Canic	0.70	CSA \| AMCR \| Mathematics · Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
Dipak Ghosal	0.70	CSA \| ESNET \| Tech Adv and Engagement · SWaP-C2 Analysis
Robert Hart	0.70	ETA \| Building Tech. & Urban Sys. \| Bldg Technologies Dept · Load-Bearing Structures

Example Priorities:

Key research and innovations are expected to focus on developing novel methods and mechanisms to efficiently route, dissipate, or transduce extreme thermal loads.
At the thermodynamic level, heat pipes and phase-change loops are limited by capillary dry-out, vapor-choking, and fluid-materials incompatibility under acceleration, vibration, or transient heat-flux conditions.
Submissions must prioritize rigorous, physics-based evidence—such as mathematical derivations, first-principles thermodynamics calculations, or preliminary modeling data—over qualitative, marketing-style assertions.

Specific Technical Skills:

ThermodynamicsHeat Transfer PhysicsMultiphysics ModelingComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)Phase-Change PhenomenaTwo-Phase FlowFirst-Principles CalculationsFluid DynamicsThermal Transduction

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Aurelie Champagne	0.76	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · First-Principles Calculations
Pramod Bhuvankar	0.75	EESA \| EG \| Hydrogeology Dept · Two-Phase Flow
Francesco Ricci	0.75	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · First-Principles Calculations
Zhi Jackie Yao	0.75	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Multiphysics Modeling
Aaron Lattanzi	0.74	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Fluid Dynamics
Jeremy Smith	0.74	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept · Thermodynamics
Chris Dames	0.73	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Thermal Transduction
Alexandre Chorin	0.73	CSA \| AMCR \| Mathematics · Fluid Dynamics
Bingqing Cheng	0.73	ESA \| CSD \| Gas Phase · Phase-Change Phenomena
Mahesh Natarajan	0.72	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

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
Scott Mccormack	0.78	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · High-Temperature Materials Chemistry
Kin Yu	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Advanced Materials Science
Zhi Jackie Yao	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Multiphysics Modeling & Simulation
Francesco Ricci	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · First-Principles Modeling
Qin Yu	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Structural & Materials Integration
Aaron Lattanzi	0.77	CSA \| AMCR \| Applied Mathematics · Computational Fluid Dynamics
Thomas Schutzius	0.76	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Phase-Change Heat Transfer
Minok Park	0.75	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Jeremy Smith	0.74	EESA \| EG \| Geophysics Dept · Thermomechanical Stress Analysis
Ravi Prasher	0.74	ETA \| ESDR \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Thermodynamics & Heat Transfer

Fundamental Research Exemption (FRE)

Not Mentioned