Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2027

Background
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA) program aims to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions in academia and equivalent positions at non-profit research institutions, particularly those without prior DARPA funding.

The goal of the YFA program is to expose these researchers to Department of War (DoW) needs and DARPA’s mission to create and prevent technological surprise for national security. The program provides high-impact funding to early-career researchers to develop innovative research that enables transformative DoW capabilities, ultimately fostering the next generation of researchers focused on national security issues.

Work Details
The YFA consists of a 24-month base period divided into two 12-month intervals, with each interval not exceeding $250,000, totaling a maximum funding of $500,000.

Proposals must include a Statement of Work (SOW) and associated cost proposal for the Director’s Fellowship option, which is an additional 12-month period after the base period with a maximum funding of $500,000. The program also includes an option for U.S. citizen graduate students, providing funding for one graduate student who will work in a supporting capacity during the base period. This option has a maximum total funding of $225,000 and can only be exercised once an eligible student is identified. Proposers must include travel costs in their budget for graduate students to participate in YFA engagement opportunities. The research topics include areas such as numerical analysis of iterative prompt engineering and emergent communication protocols for distributed systems.

Period of Performance
The contract will be performed over a total of 24 months for the base period, followed by an optional 12-month Director’s Fellowship period and potentially concurrent with a U.S. Citizen Graduate Student option lasting up to 12 months.

Bidder Requirements
Proposers must be current tenure-track assistant/associate professors or tenured faculty within three years of their tenure date or equivalent at non-profit research institutions within 12 years of receiving their Ph.D. Key personnel must be employed at U.S. institutions; foreign nationals may participate under specific conditions. Individuals who have received significant prior DARPA funding or have previously received a YFA Award as PI are not eligible to serve as Key Personnel.