Solicitation
Disruptioneering Program Announcement
Department of Defense · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
AI summaryDARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has posted a standing Program Announcement called Disruptioneering. It is an umbrella notice: DARPA will later issue separate, short-fuse Disruption Opportunity (DO) notices for specific research topics, and awards will be Other Transaction (OT) prototype agreements, not regular FAR contracts. You cannot bid on this notice itself; you would respond to an individual DO once one is posted. More in the summary
A newer version of this notice was posted Sep 25, 2026. See the latest version.
AI summary Beta
Summary of the version posted Sep 25, 2026. The notice was amended Oct 14, 2026. The due date moved from Oct 30, 2026 to Dec 14, 2026. Check what else changed on SAM.gov. This summary may miss requirements: 1 of 13 attachments weren't read (PROPOSAL_TEMPLATE_-_SUMMARY_SLIDES.pptx). Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has posted a standing Program Announcement called Disruptioneering. It is an umbrella notice: DARPA will later issue separate, short-fuse Disruption Opportunity (DO) notices for specific research topics, and awards will be Other Transaction (OT) prototype agreements, not regular FAR contracts. You cannot bid on this notice itself; you would respond to an individual DO once one is posted.
Who can bid (5)
- No set-aside, and the size standard listed is 1,000 employees. OTs may only be awarded when one of the statutory conditions is met, for example a nontraditional defense contractor or small business participating significantly.
- A one-third cost share per phase may be required unless you show a nontraditional defense contractor, nonprofit research institution or small business is participating to a significant extent. Nonprofit research institutions do not have to cost share.
- Active SAM.gov registration with a Unique Entity ID, CAGE code and taxpayer ID is listed on the price and technical templates; registration in Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF) is required before any award.
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- Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements were added in Amendment 1 and the sample OT has a CMMC article marked if applicable. The details were in a section of the PA that was not read (it may be an attached file the AI skipped; check SAM.gov).
- Proposers must disclose any current or past (within one year) SETA, A&AS or similar support to DARPA, and any other organizational conflicts of interest, with a mitigation plan if applicable.
How to submit: Per the PA, email is used for all correspondence (administrative questions to DARPA-PA-25-07@darpa.mil). Proposals must not be sent by fax or mail. The submission instructions for proposals are given in each DO.. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (6)
- Serious: No proposals accepted on this notice. This is an umbrella announcement, so there is nothing to bid on until DARPA posts an individual Disruption Opportunity, and sending a proposal to the PA may be ignored.
- Worth checking: Short fuse and unknown topics. Each DO is open for at most 60 days and DARPA wants awards within 120 days, so a small business has little time to build a team, a price and a technical plan.
- Worth checking: Fixed milestone payments. You are paid only a fixed amount when each milestone is accepted, so you carry the cost and schedule risk of research that may not work.
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- Worth checking: Possible one-third cost share. If you cannot show that a nontraditional defense contractor, small business or nonprofit research institution has a significant role, you may have to fund a third of the project yourself.
- Worth checking: Contract terms are accepted by default. If you do not send a tracked-changes copy of the sample OT agreement, DARPA treats all of its terms (including data rights and cyber rules) as accepted.
- Minor: Research-grade technical bar. The work is high-risk defense science and engineering R&D, and technical merit is the most important evaluation factor, so this fits R&D-capable teams rather than service providers.
Read from the notice and 12 attachments. 1 of 13 not read. Show which files.
- DARPA-PA-25-07-Amendment-03.pdf (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07_Amendment_3_Summary_of_Changes.docx (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07-Amendment-02.pdf (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07_Amendment_2_Summary_of_Changes.docx (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07-Amendment-01.pdf (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07_Amendment_1_Summary_of_Changes.docx (read)
- DARPA-PA-25-07.pdf (read)
- Disruptioneering_Other_Transaction_for_Prototype_Agreement_SAMPLE_-_Amendment_2.docx (read)
- TASK_DESCRIPTION_DOCUMENT_TEMPLATE.docx (read)
- PROPOSAL_TEMPLATE_-_VOLUME_3_ADMINISTRATIVE___NATIONAL_POLICY_REQUIREMENTS.docx (read)
- PROPOSAL_TEMPLATE_-_VOLUME_2_PRICE.docx (read)
- PROPOSAL_TEMPLATE_-_VOLUME_1_TECHNICAL___MANAGEMENT.docx (read)
- PROPOSAL_TEMPLATE_-_SUMMARY_SLIDES.pptx: not read (the AI doesn't read this file type yet): open it on SAM.gov
Full summary
What they want
- Fast, focused, high-risk/high-reward research projects that lead to a prototype demonstration
- Proposals sent only in response to individual Disruption Opportunities (DOs) issued under this announcement
- Each DO is one or two phases: a Phase 1 base and an optional Phase 2
- Proposals as an OT agreement with fixed payable milestones
- A proposal package with technical, price and administrative volumes plus a Task Description Document
- Contract type
- Other Transaction (OT) for prototype projects under 10 U.S.C. 4022, with fixed payable milestones; multiple awards anticipated
- Period of performance
- Set in each DO: Phase 1 (base) and, if included, Phase 2 (option). The Program Announcement itself closes October 30, 2026.
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- How they'll choose
- Proposals to each DO are scored on three criteria listed in descending order of importance; price reasonableness is expected to come from price competition. No LPTA or best-value label is used.
- Offers due
- Not applicable to this notice: the Program Announcement closes October 30, 2026 (Eastern Time), but each DO sets its own due date and proposals cannot be sent to the PA itself (from the version posted Sep 25, 2026; amended since)
- How to submit
- Per the PA, email is used for all correspondence (administrative questions to DARPA-PA-25-07@darpa.mil). Proposals must not be sent by fax or mail. The submission instructions for proposals are given in each DO.
- Page limits
- Technical and Management Volume: maximum 10 pages (the cover sheet, table of contents, Task Description Document and optional bibliography do not count). No page limit for the Price Volume or the Administrative and National Policy Volume.
What they'll judge offers on
- Overall Scientific and Technical Merit
- Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission
- Price
What to include when you submit
- Proposals go in response to a specific DO only, never to this PA
- Use the mandatory templates: Summary Slide, Volume 1 Technical and Management, Volume 2 Price, Volume 3 Administrative and National Policy Requirements
- Include a Task Description Document (the Amendment 1 summary says it is required)
- Complete the Schedule of Milestones and Payments and the streamlined cost buildup workbook that come with each DO
- Proposal validity period of at least 365 days
- Optionally send a tracked-changes copy of the sample OT agreement; if you do not, DARPA assumes you accept all Articles
- Volume 3 asks for conflict-of-interest, intellectual property, human subjects and animal use, and tax/felony representations
- Volumes must be in English, 8.5 by 11 inch pages, 1-inch margins, with Volume 1 in 12 point font and the other volumes in 11 point
Not in the notice text
- The actual research topics, ceilings, budgets, due dates and email addresses: these will be in each separate DO notice
- Sections 5 to 8 of the Program Announcement (application and submission details, review and selection process, full eligibility information, award administration including the CMMC and controlled information rules) were cut out of the text provided, so they are not summarized here
- Most of the sample OT agreement (data rights, patent rights, foreign access, key personnel, cyber reporting) was cut out
- The Summary Slide template (a .pptx file) was not read
- Place of performance and any estimated value are not stated
Eligibility and how to respond
- No set-aside: any business, large or small, can bid unless the notice says otherwise.
- How to submit, from the AI summary: Per the PA, email is used for all correspondence (administrative questions to DARPA-PA-25-07@darpa.mil). Proposals must not be sent by fax or mail. The submission instructions for proposals are given in each DO. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
Notice details
- Posted
- Sep 11, 2026
- Notice type
- Solicitation
- Office
- Def Advanced Research Projects Agcy, Arlington, VA
- Product/service code
- AC11 · National Defense R&D Services; Department of Defense – Military; Basic Research
- Business type
- Engineering, architecture & research (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 541715)
- Versions
12 versions have been posted, newest first.
- Oct 14, 2026 · Amendment 0011Due Dec 14, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 28, 2026 · Amendment 0010Due Oct 9, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 28, 2026 · Amendment 0009Due Oct 19, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 25, 2026 · Amendment 0008Due Oct 30, 2026
- Sep 11, 2026 · Amendment 0007 (this version)Due Oct 30, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 4, 2026 · Amendment 0006Due Oct 19, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 3, 2026 · Amendment 0005Due Oct 9, 2026
- Aug 28, 2026 · Amendment 0004Due Oct 9, 2026 (changed)
- Aug 21, 2026 · Amendment 0003Due Oct 19, 2026
- Aug 20, 2026 · Amendment 0002Due Oct 19, 2026 (changed)
- Aug 19, 2026 · Amendment 0001Due Sep 29, 2026
- Sep 30, 2025 · SolicitationDue Sep 29, 2026
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
Terms on this notice: Solicitation
Full notice text from SAM.gov
The mission of the DARPA DSO is to identify, investigate, and leverage nascent scientific advances for national security applications by pursuing high-risk, high-payoff research initiatives across a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines. Disruption Opportunity (DO) topics are issued to rapidly investigate new concepts with focused investments. DOs enable DARPA to initiate a new investment for unclassified efforts in less than 120 calendar days from idea inception. To enable this approach, DSO will issue individual DOs under this solicitation. These opportunities will target specific technical domains important to DSO’s mission to pursue innovative research that leads to a prototype demonstration. More information about DSO’s technical domains and research topics of interest may be found at https://www.darpa.mil/about/offices/dso.