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AI Forward Initiative (via AI Exploration opportunities - AIEs) is sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). AI Forward is DARPA's initiative to explore new directions for artificial intelligence research that will result in trustworthy systems for national security missions. It focuses on building AI systems that reliably operate in adversarial, ambiguous, and high-stakes environments.
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Department of War organization. Reimagining the future of artificial intelligence for national security DARPA’s Information Innovation Office Director Dr. Kathleen Fisher presents on trustworthy AI at the DARPA Forward event in Pullman, Wash. , on Sept.
13, 2022. AI Forward is DARPA’s initiative to explore new directions for artificial intelligence (AI) research that will result in trustworthy systems for national security missions. To initiate AI Forward, DARPA hosted two workshops in summer 2023 at which participants brainstormed new directions for the field.
Approximately 200 participants from across the commercial sector, academia, and government attended and generated ideas that inform DARPA’s next phase of AI exploratory projects, known as AI Exploration opportunities (AIEs). AIEs are a key component of the agency’s broader AI investment strategy aimed at ensuring the United States maintains an advantage in this critical and rapidly accelerating technology area.
What Does it Mean to Be Trustworthy? Despite progress in the field, AI still requires significant investment and advancement to develop technology that reliably operates, interacts appropriately with people, and meets the most pressing national security and societal needs in an ethical manner. DARPA seeks qualified researchers and experts to join the agency and help define the future of AI technology.
Trustworthy AI Research Thrusts --> DARPA experts estimate that research in the following areas will be essential to creating trustworthy technology: Foundational theory, to understand the art of the possible, bound the limits of particular system instantiations, and inform guardrails for AI systems in challenging domains such as national security; AI engineering, to predictably build systems that work as intended in the real world and not just in the lab; and Human-AI teaming, to enable systems to serve as fluent, intuitive, trustworthy teammates to people with various backgrounds.
Building on 60+ Years of AI Research DARPA has been generating groundbreaking research and development for 65 years – leading to game-changing military capabilities as well as icons of modern society such as initiating the research field that rendered self-driving cars, and developing the technology that lead to Apple’s Siri.
Since 2018 through the AI Next campaign , we invested more than $2 billion to advance AI for national security purposes. Today, roughly 70% of DARPA’s current programs benefit from AI and machine learning technology. We’re investing in more than 30 programs aimed at the exploration and advancement of a full range of AI techniques.
These include symbolic reasoning, statistical machine learning, meta-cognition, explanation and assurance, and hybrid methods. We want to push beyond second-wave machine learning techniques toward contextual reasoning capabilities, so that machines could be more than just tools, and function as true partners. Building on the success of AI Next, the AI Forward initiative focuses on trustworthiness for these systems.
This focus will be critical to developing technology that reliably operates, interacts appropriately with people, and meets the most pressing national security and societal needs in an ethical manner.
EMHAT: Exploratory Models of Human-AI Teams FACT: Friction for Accountability in Conversational Transactions FoundSci: Foundation Models for Scientific Discovery Reimagine the Future of AI for National Security How to Create AI Technology We Can Trust | Ep 66 The DARPA perspective on AI and autonomy at the DoD | Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) | March 2024 Prepping for Future of AI Through High-Risk, High-Reward R&D | Federal News Network | March 2024 Kathleen Fisher: DARPA and AI for national security | The Gradient podcast | December 2023
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Universities, research organizations, and small businesses are eligible for AIEs. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
AI Forward Initiative (via AI Exploration opportunities - AIEs) is funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office launched the Mathematics of Boosting Agentic Communication (MATHBAC) program on April 7, 2026, under solicitation DARPA-PA-26-05. MATHBAC aims to develop the mathematical and scientific foundations needed to make networks of AI agents collaborate more effectively and ultimately accelerate the pace of scientific discovery for national defense. The program seeks innovative research proposals that advance foundational mathematics, systems theory, and information theory required to enable and understand science-discovery by autonomous agents and agent collectives. Researchers will develop tools to model individual AI agents as mathematical operators, analyze how different communication structures affect a team's ability to solve problems, and build software that lets researchers design optimized multi-agent communication protocols without large-scale trial and error. Key technical areas include multi-agent communication protocols, agentic AI coordination, formal models of collective intelligence, and mathematical frameworks for agent-to-agent collaboration. The program is structured as a 34-month, two-phase effort with Phase I running approximately 16 months and capping individual awards at $2 million. A Proposers Day was held on April 21, 2026. Abstracts were strongly encouraged by April 30, 2026 but are not mandatory. Full proposals are due June 16, 2026, with program performance expected to begin September 15, 2026.
Information Processing Techniques Office Office-Wide (HR001126S0011) is sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA programs focus on fundamental research required to establish proof of concept in science and technology fields crucial for national security. While broad, DARPA often has interests in cybersecurity as part of its mission to prevent technological surprise.
AI Exploration (AIE) opportunities under DARPA AI Forward Initiative is sponsored by DARPA. The 'AI Forward' initiative is DARPA's effort to explore new directions for artificial intelligence (AI) research that will result in trustworthy systems for national security missions. Funding flows through AI Exploration (AIE) opportunities with streamlined contracting procedures designed to rapidly advance promising AI concepts. This includes proposals in offensive and defensive cybersecurity and trustworthy AI.
AI Forward Initiative (AI Exploration opportunities - AIEs) is sponsored by DARPA. AI Forward is DARPA's initiative to explore new directions for artificial intelligence (AI) research that will result in trustworthy systems for national security missions. AIEs are unique funding opportunities for researchers to establish the feasibility of new AI concepts.
DARPA's Non-Volatile Memory for Extreme Environments topic (DPA26BZ04-DV017) is a Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR worth $1.2 million for radiation-hardened NOR Flash that works from -269°C to +600°C. It opened July 22 and closes August 19, 2026. Here is why the no-Phase-I structure narrows the field to a handful of teams, what the rad-hard specs actually demand, and how a qualified company should sequence a proposal in under a month.
Read articleDARPA's FALCON SBIR topic (DPA26BZ04-DV016) is a Direct-to-Phase-II award worth $1.5 million to teams that can marry the statistical rigor of classical machine learning with the contextual reach of large language models. It opened July 22 and closes August 19, 2026. Here is why the no-Phase-I structure changes who can win, what the hallucination-mitigation requirement really demands, and how a small team should sequence a proposal in under four weeks.
Read articleDARPA pre-released two Release 4 SBIR topics on July 1 — FALCON, fusing efficient ML with large language models, and a non-volatile memory system rated for space and deep-cryogenic extremes. Both open July 22 and close August 19, 2026. Here's what each topic is really asking for and how to build a competitive proposal.
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