1,000+ Opportunities
Find the right grant
Search federal, foundation, and corporate grants with AI — or browse by agency, topic, and state.
DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) Program (2025) is sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.
Get a weekly digest of new grants like this
A free weekly digest of new foundation and federal funding opportunities as they're added to Granted. Unsubscribe anytime.
Or search similar grants →Extracted from the official opportunity page/RFP to help you evaluate fit faster.
Department of War organization. Young Faculty Award (YFA) Young Faculty Award (YFA) The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to identify and engage researchers in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic and non-profit research institutions and expose them to national security needs and DARPA’s program development process.
The YFA program provides funding, mentoring and industry and national security contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will focus a significant portion of their career on national security issues.
The annual research announcement seeking YFA applications is typically posted to the grants. gov , and sam. gov websites between August and September.
YFA 2026 Research Announcement Administrative (as of Jan. 12, 2026) Technical (as of Dec. 15, 2025) RSS feed for Opportunities Young Faculty Award | Ep 74
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Researchers at U. S. universities and from equivalent positions at U. S. nonprofit research institutions. DARPA strongly encourages proposers to first submit an executive summary. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) Program (2025) is funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Yes — this listing is flagged as national in scope, so applicants across the U.S. may apply, subject to the sponsor's other eligibility criteria.
Applications go through the funder's official portal — the Apply Now link on this page goes there directly.
Past winners and funding trends for this program
DPA26BZ06-DV023 is a Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR paying $700,000 over 18 months plus a $500,000 option. The physics demands 256x more transmit power than the systems that qualify you to compete, and DARPA will not accept modeling alone as proof. Here is the eligibility wall, the five engineering problems, and who can realistically win it before the October 21 close.
Read articleRelease 6's SBIR topics got the attention. Its three STTR topics — SHIELDER, fuel-flexible electric propulsion, and hypersonic wind tunnel noise diagnostics — are all Direct-to-Phase-II, all require a research institution to perform at least 30 percent of the work, and all close October 21, 2026. The feasibility gates are the real filter.
Read articleDPA26BZ06-DV026 offers $300,000 at Phase I or $1,800,000 as a single Direct-to-Phase-II tranche with no options. The deliverable is a simulated auction market that measures whether AI agents deceive, collude, or manipulate the humans they serve — measured entirely from the outside. Here is the 90% efficiency gate, the team composition most bidders will get wrong, and why this topic sits in DARPA's biology office.
Read article