Solicitation
Atomically Precise Molecules (APM)
Dept of Defense · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) · Sol. DARPA-PS-26-141
Due in 72 days
AI summary Beta
Some details are in the notice's attachments, which this summary didn't read. Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
DARPA is asking for research proposals on new ways to make polymer and nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, including methods that can scale up. The program ends with a prototype of a new NLO material working inside a Government-provided electro-optic modulator. The notice text is short and does not give a place of performance, contract length or value.
Watch out for
- Advanced research, not incremental work. DARPA wants revolutionary advances and excludes small improvements, so this suits firms with deep materials science capability and not general suppliers.
Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice
- Some approaches are excluded. Proposals using only inorganic materials, or only tweaking existing NLO materials, are out of scope.
Proposals aiming to employ solely inorganic materials without a polymeric component
- Full instructions are not in the notice text. Submission steps, evaluation criteria and eligibility are not stated here and are likely in the solicitation documents, so you cannot judge effort from this text alone.
Read from the notice text only.
Full brief
What they want
- New synthesis techniques for polymeric materials and nonlinear optical (NLO) materials
- Approaches that can scale to quantities useful for putting the material into real applications
- A prototype demonstration of an NLO material integrated into a Government-provided electro-optic modulator
- Offers due
- 2026-12-18T13:00:00
Not in the notice text
- How and where to submit proposals
- Evaluation criteria and how awards are decided
- Eligibility rules, such as who may propose or any citizenship or security requirements
- Funding level, award type and length of the effort
- Place of performance (left blank in the notice)
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Key facts
- Response due
- Dec 18, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC
- Posted
- Sep 25, 2026
- Notice type
- Solicitation
- Solicitation
- DARPA-PS-26-141
- Agency
- Dept of Defense · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa)
- Office
- Def Advanced Research Projects Agcy
- NAICS
- 541715
- Product/service code
- AC12
- Business type
- Engineering, architecture & research
- Contracting contact
- APM PS CoordinatorAPM@darpa.mil
Full notice text from SAM.gov
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals in the areas of new synthesis techniques for polymeric materials and nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in material synthesis with the ability to scale to quantities relevant for application integration, culminating in the development of a prototype demonstration of a revolutionary NLO material integrated into a functional government-provided electro-optic modulator. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice, or research that pivots on exceptional claims that cannot be technically justified in the proposal. This includes: • Proposals aiming to employ solely inorganic materials without a polymeric component • Proposals aiming to modify/repurpose existing NLO materials resulting in incremental improvements to the state-of-the-art (SoA)
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