ONHS Report: DARPA-SN-27-15

Future Program: Laguna

Solicitation ID: DARPA-SN-27-15

Agency: DARPA/BTO

Type: Special Notice

Deadline: 2026-11-30T23:59:00 ET

Eligibility: Maybe (Topic Dependent)

Funding: N/A

Doc Type: PS

Clearance: No

Program Manager: Dr. William Mounfield

Last Updated: 2026-11-05 17:02

Analyzed File: DARPA-SN-27-15.pdf

Eligibility Reasoning

Under TA2 – Model, Government partners, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), National Labs, and university affiliated research centers will develop models... This Special Notice does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals.

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

Summary

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) announced the forthcoming Laguna program to mitigate reliance on foreign supply chains for specialty chemicals. The program's goal is to develop integrated manufacturing methods that directly convert abundant domestic feedstocks (e.g., sugars, ethylene, BTX) into application-ready specialty chemical formulations, such as protective coatings, composite resins, and high-performance polymers for defense systems. This approach seeks to bypass conventional multi-step chemical synthesis by integrating synthesis, formulation, and validation to reduce waste and intermediate processing. The 36-month program will consist of two Technical Areas (TAs): TA1 (Make & Formulate) for performers to develop and demonstrate products, and TA2 (Model) for government partners and research centers to create predictive models optimizing the process and final material properties. (Source: DARPA-SN-27-15.pdf.)

Overall Technical Areas

Integrated Chemical ManufacturingSpecialty Chemical FormulationAdvanced Protective CoatingsComposite Resins and AdhesivesHigh-Performance Polymeric MaterialsMolded Structural ComponentsNon-Fluorinated Polymer SynthesisDomestic Feedstock ConversionPredictive Materials ModelingChemical Process OptimizationMaterial Property PredictionBiochemical ConversionPetrochemical Feedstock Processing

Probable LBNL Areas

BSACSAESAETAPSA

Focus Areas

Example Priorities:

develop and demonstrate integrated manufacturing approaches that directly convert abundant domestic feedstocks into application-ready specialty chemical formulations, while minimizing intermediate separations, processing steps, or downstream reformulation.
Target areas include advanced protective and functional coatings for aircraft, ground vehicles, maritime systems, and infrastructure; composite resins and adhesives for lightweight structural assemblies, repair, and bonding applications; high-performance polymeric materials and molded structural components; and non-fluorinated replacements for fluorinated polymers...
Approaches will be evaluated through comprehensive technoeconomic analysis, life cycle assessment, and commercialization strategy plans.

Specific Technical Skills:

Chemical SynthesisMaterials FormulationProcess EngineeringPolymer ChemistryCoatings TechnologyAdhesive ScienceComposite MaterialsTechnoeconomic AnalysisLife Cycle Assessment

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Minliang Yang	0.78	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Technoeconomic Analysis
Amy Herr	0.78	BSA \| Biological Systems & Engineering \| Process Engr & Analytics · Process Engineering
Eric Masanet	0.77	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Technoeconomic Analysis
Brooks Abel	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Polymer Chemistry
Sabbie Miller	0.77	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Life Cycle Assessment
Didier Perrodin	0.77	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Materials Formulation
Peidong Yang	0.74	ESA \| MSD \| Material Chemistry · Chemical Synthesis
Qin Yu	0.74	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Composite Materials
Philip Mallon	0.74	PSA \| Engineering \| Mechanical Engineering · Coatings Technology
Gao Liu	0.73	ETA \| Energy Technologies and Systems \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Adhesive Science

Example Priorities:

develop models to predict and optimize relationships among feedstocks, synthesis, formulation, processing, cost, and final product properties and performance.
develop tools to accurately predict material properties across a range of DoW relevant use cases.

Specific Technical Skills:

Computational ModelingProcess SimulationMaterials InformaticsPredictive AnalyticsData ScienceOptimization AlgorithmsStructure-Property RelationshipsMachine Learning

Potential PIs for this Area:

Name	Score	Organization
Kristin Persson	0.79	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Materials Informatics
Francesco Ricci	0.78	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Materials Informatics
Andrew Minor	0.78	ESA \| MF \| MF NCEM Facility · Structure-Property Relationships
Eric Schaible	0.77	ESA \| ALS \| ALS Photon Science Operations · Structure-Property Relationships
Anna Giannakou	0.76	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Applications · Data Science
Michael Mahoney	0.76	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Research · Predictive Analytics
Houjun Tang	0.75	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Applications · Process Simulation
Zixi Hu	0.75	CSA \| AMCR \| Mathematics · Computational Modeling
Talita Perciano Costa Leite	0.74	CSA \| SciData \| Data & Computational Science · Machine Learning
Jean Luca Bez	0.74	CSA \| SciData \| Data Science Applications · Optimization Algorithms

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
Francesco Ricci	0.79	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Predictive Materials Modeling
Kristin Persson	0.79	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Material Property Prediction
Venkataramana Pidatala	0.77	BSA \| Biological Systems & Engineering \| Biodesign Dept · Biochemical Conversion
Eric Dailing	0.77	ESA \| MF \| MF Organic Facility · High-Performance Polymeric Materials
Kenny Higa	0.76	ETA \| Energy Technologies and Systems \| Energy Storage & Dist Dpt · Integrated Chemical Manufacturing
Nawa Raj Baral	0.76	BSA \| Biological Systems & Engineering \| Process Engr & Analytics · Chemical Process Optimization
Brooks Abel	0.76	ESA \| MSD \| Material Physics · Non-Fluorinated Polymer Synthesis
Philip Mallon	0.75	PSA \| Engineering \| Mechanical Engineering · Advanced Protective Coatings
Minliang Yang	0.74	ETA \| Energy Analysis \| Systems & Energy Tech Analysis · Domestic Feedstock Conversion
Neil Razdan	0.74	ESA \| CSD \| Catalysis · Petrochemical Feedstock Processing

Fundamental Research Exemption (FRE)

Not Mentioned