Pipelined Reasoning Of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS)

Background
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking innovative research proposals in the field of proof engineering. The mission of DARPA is to drive advances in technology that ensure critical Department of Defense (DoD) systems are free from defects and vulnerabilities. The goal of this contract is to develop knowledge, methods, and tools that integrate capabilities into a continuous software development pipeline, making them accessible to traditional software developers and engineers.

Work Details
The work under this contract includes three main phases: Phase 1 (Preparation), Phase 2 (Hardening), and Phase 3 (Maturation). Each phase has specific tasks and metrics for success:

- **Phase 1: Preparation (12 months)**
- Focus on low complexity tasks.
- Tasks include automation and scaling of diverse techniques for proof engineering.

- **Phase 2: Hardening (18 months)**
- Focus on medium complexity tasks.
- Tasks include maturation of existing automation techniques and tool integration demonstration with various ecosystems.

- **Phase 3: Maturation (12 months)**
- Focus on high complexity tasks.
- Tasks include continued tool maturation and integration with modern software development infrastructure.

Metrics for success include hardened artifact assessments, verification property ranges, assurance increments during system updates, and the percentage of serious findings by Red Teams remaining after evaluations. Proposals must also address quantitative and qualitative success criteria anticipated by each phase's program metric measurement.

Period of Performance
The contract will be performed over a total period of approximately 42 months, divided into three phases: Phase 1 lasting 12 months, Phase 2 lasting 18 months, and Phase 3 lasting an additional 12 months.

Place of Performance
The geographic locations for performance are not explicitly stated; however, it is implied that work may involve open-source systems of DoD interest and sensitive applications/security appliances.