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DARPA's SAFRON (Safe and Assured Foundation Robots for Open Environments) program develops foundation-model-based robotic systems that can safely and assuredly accept natural-language commands and operate in open, unstructured environments.
SAFRON focuses on the safety, assurance, and predictability of foundation-model-driven robots, especially the risks that arise when large language and vision-language-action models are given low-level control over physical platforms.
The program funds new methods for specifying, evaluating, and bounding the behavior of foundation-model robots, with a goal of producing robots that can be trusted to operate safely in homes, hospitals, factories, and military environments. SAFRON is part of DARPA's broader push to integrate frontier foundation models into safety-critical autonomous systems.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Universities, defense contractors, robotics startups, AI safety research labs, and FFRDCs eligible under DARPA BAA terms. Proposals typically must include both foundation-model safety research and platform integration capability. Foreign participation is restricted per standard DARPA terms. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows typical DARPA program awards under SAFRON range from approximately $500,000 to $20,000,000 per performer across multi-year phases. Specific award sizes will be set in the issued BAA, with multiple performer teams expected. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
DARPA SAFRON Safe and Assured Foundation Robots for Open Environments Program 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.
The Army Applications Lab's DevX Autonomy open call seeks commercial autonomous and unmanned system solutions that can address Army capability gaps in maneuver, sustainment, and force protection. The solicitation accepts proposals on a rolling monthly basis through August 31, 2026, and is targeted at non-traditional defense vendors with autonomy software, AI perception systems, and unmanned ground or aerial platforms. AAL provides early access to Army end users for problem refinement, prototype evaluation, and transition planning. Awards are structured as Other Transaction Agreements, with awards typically between $500K and $2M and a pathway to follow-on Army programs of record. AAL is part of the U.S. Army Futures Command innovation portfolio.
AFRL's Geospatial Intelligence Processing and Exploitation (GeoPEX) BAA seeks white papers for research, development, integration, test and evaluation of technologies and techniques to provide geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in all its forms and from whatever source — imagery, imagery intelligence, or geospatial data and information. The open, two-step BAA prioritizes AI-enabled sensor fusion, machine learning for imagery exploitation, multi-source data integration, autonomous geospatial reasoning, and intelligent processing pipelines. Total funding approximately $99.9M with individual awards typically $250K to $10M over up to 24 months. White papers accepted on a rolling basis until September 30, 2026; formal proposals are by invitation only.
The U.S. Army's SBIR/STTR Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Open Topic provides non-dilutive funding to small businesses developing AI and machine learning solutions for defense applications such as supply chain management, logistics coordination, target identification, and modeling and simulation. Awards follow the standard SBIR/STTR structure: Phase I establishes technical feasibility (typically up to about $250,000) and Phase II funds development and demonstration (typically up to about $2,000,000), with Phase III for commercialization. Open-topic solicitations accept proposals on a periodic basis.
DPA26BZ05-DV019 asks small businesses to reduce ISR video transmission from small drones by 90 to 99 percent while preserving what an operator actually needs, on a Jetson-class board at a 2-watt final power budget. It is Direct-to-Phase-II, up to $1.5 million base plus a $500,000 option, and its exclusion list — no weapon release, no lethal engagement, no named-person identification — is the most strategically revealing paragraph in DARPA's FY26 Release 5.
Read articleDPA26BZ05-DV018 is the largest award in DARPA's FY26 SBIR Release 5 — up to $3 million over 18 months, Direct-to-Phase-II only. It funds four subsystem tracks for an underwater 3D concrete printer that uses seafloor sediment and seawater with under 20 percent binder. Here is what the Trenton program already proved, why the track structure is really a supplier-qualification exercise, and who can clear the prior-feasibility bar in the four weeks that remain.
Read articleTwo weeks after the DARPA Lift Challenge ended with the winner at 3.84:1 — short of the 4:1 target — DARPA posted a Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR that requires empirical proof of a 4:1 payload-to-weight ratio to bid. DPA26BZ05-DV022 offers up to $1.5 million over 24 months across two tracks that map exactly onto the Challenge's two design prizes. Here is who can actually clear the entry bar, what the month-9, month-18, and month-24 gates demand, and why the certification language is the real story.
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