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The Autonomous Eradication Technologies Challenge is a Department of Defense prize competition offering up to 550,000 US dollars for autonomous drone, robotics, AI and sensor technologies capable of detecting and controlling Guam's invasive brown tree snake. It is sponsored by Headquarters Marine Corps together with SERDP/ESTCP and DARPA, and administered by Central Florida Tech Grove.
The underlying problem is a long-standing one that conventional methods have failed to solve: the brown tree snake has driven most of Guam's native forest bird species to local extinction or severe decline and causes roughly 4,500,000 dollars a year in economic losses through power outages when snakes contact electrical infrastructure, while island-wide eradication is considered close to impossible without new technology.
The technical brief is unusually demanding and is where the AI content concentrates.
Solutions must operate in dense forest canopy, rugged terrain and night conditions, detect concealed targets, and support large-area autonomous surveillance missions, which means the hard problems are persistent autonomy under canopy where GPS is unreliable, detection of a camouflaged nocturnal target against cluttered natural backgrounds, and mission-level autonomy across wide areas rather than single-platform flight.
Priority areas named by the sponsors are drones, autonomous robotics, AI and machine learning, predictive modelling and advanced sensors. The deadline is 1 December 2026 at 21:59 CST. Beyond cash, the challenge offers Other Transaction Authority procurement pathways, field demonstration on Guam with military and federal stakeholders, and transition routes toward deployment at scale.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: The sponsors state that startups, universities, defence contractors, AI and drone teams, robotics developers, sensor engineers and environmental technology innovators are all eligible, which is a deliberately wide field reflecting that the sponsors do not know which discipline will produce the answer. Participation is not explicitly restricted to U.S. companies in the published materials, though this is a Department of Defense sponsored competition and the Other Transaction Authority procurement pathways and Guam field demonstration opportunities that constitute the real value will in practice favour entities able to contract with and operate alongside U.S. military and federal agencies; non-U.S. teams should clarify their position with the administrator before investing effort. Solutions must be capable of operating in dense forest canopy, rugged terrain and night conditions, detecting hidden targets and supporting large-area autonomous surveillance, so a submission that demonstrates performance only in open terrain or daylight does not meet the operational brief however strong the underlying model. Teams should expect that advancing beyond the paper stage requires a field-deployable system, since the pilot and demonstration opportunities on Guam are the mechanism by which the sponsors evaluate real capability. The deadline is 1 December 2026 at 21:59 CST. The challenge is administered by Central Florida Tech Grove and prospective entrants should confirm current submission mechanics, any phase structure and the per-tier prize breakdown directly with the administrator, as the published listing does not detail them. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows the challenge offers up to 550,000 US dollars in total cash prizes, recorded as amount_min and amount_max of 550,000 on the basis of the published prize pool; no per-tier or per-cycle breakdown has been published, and comparable Department of Defense challenges have typically awarded in the range of 50,000 dollars for first place, 30,000 for second and 20,000 for third, which suggests the pool supports multiple awards across phases rather than a single large prize. The financially significant element is not the cash. Participants are offered potential Other Transaction Authority pathways providing direct procurement opportunities, pilot and field demonstration opportunities on Guam in partnership with U.S. military and federal agency stakeholders, and transition pathways toward real-world deployment and procurement at scale. For an autonomy or sensing company the OTA route is the substantive prize, because it converts a prize win into a contracting relationship with the Department of Defense without the usual full and open competition cycle, and the Guam field demonstration provides validated operational data in genuinely hard conditions that is difficult to obtain any other way. Teams should therefore budget the effort as business development with a cash offset rather than as a grant: the prize will not cover the cost of building a field-deployable system, and the economics only work if the transition pathway is the objective. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
Applications for DoD Autonomous Eradication Technologies Challenge for AI-Enabled Drones, Robotics and Sensors to Detect and Control Guam's Invasive Brown Tree Snake are due December 1, 2026. Build your timeline backwards from this date to cover registrations, approvals, and final submission checks.
DoD Autonomous Eradication Technologies Challenge for AI-Enabled Drones, Robotics and Sensors to Detect and Control Guam's Invasive Brown Tree Snake is funded by U.S. Department of Defense — Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) with the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (SERDP/ESTCP) and DARPA, administered by Central Florida Tech Grove. 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 DARPA Surgical Competition (DSC) is a $3.5 million prize challenge run by DARPA's Biological Technologies Office under 10 U.S.C. 4025. Its goal is to advance robotic and AI-enabled surgical systems that can deliver trauma care closer to the point of injury with fewer specialists available. There are two lanes. Lane 1, surgical collaboration, covers robots that assist a surgeon. Lane 2, surgical independence, covers robots performing surgical tasks with increasing autonomy. In each lane, first place wins $1 million, second $400,000, and third $100,000. Component gate prizes are $235,000 for the top Physical Capability Gate performer, $100,000 for the Rapid Learning Gate, and $75,000 for the Medical Knowledge Gate, and teams meeting each gate's minimums receive $3,000 per gate. Up to 10 teams will qualify. The qualification window runs from 11 September 2026 and closes on 13 November 2026 at 4 PM ET, with rolling review. The schedule also includes a virtual second industry day on 4 November 2026, an in-person workshop on 15-24 January 2027, and the scored competition on 20-26 March 2027. Teams are self-funded, and there is no full proposal and no cost share.
NSF's Dear Colleague Letter NSF 26-017 (published March 24, 2026, updated October 27, 2026) invites proposals that use AI and other emerging technologies to strengthen children's online safety and privacy, expand educational opportunities, support well-being, and help educators and parents, including through AI literacy and digital literacy. The DCL has no dedicated budget. Proposals are submitted through participating programs such as NSF FINDERS Foundry (NSF 26-507), which expects about 50 Planning awards of up to $50,000 and about 20 Development awards of up to $300,000 for one year, and TechAccess: AI-Ready America (NSF 26-508). Proposal titles must begin 'Empowering Children to Thrive DCL:'. The next FINDERS Foundry Development proposal deadline is November 18, 2026 at 5 p.m. submitter local time; other deadlines follow the participating solicitations.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Rapid Capabilities Office, working with the Office of Naval Intelligence and Army Contracting Command-Rock Island, is running a One Nation Innovation challenge on the GoColosseum marketplace. The challenge is Tactical ISR Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED): Adaptive AI and Autonomy at the Tactical Edge. It seeks AI and computer vision that detect, track, and re-identify objects in imagery from small unclassified unmanned aerial systems. Systems must keep custody across multiple simultaneous detections and re-identify targets after custody is lost. They must also use low-shot learning that needs minimal labelled data, run at the edge on size-, weight- and power-constrained hardware without the cloud, and integrate with GEOINT formats and the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK). Winning solutions may receive prototype awards under Other Transaction Authority, and the amount and number of awards are not published. The submission window opened on 22 October 2026 and closes on 19 November 2026 at 3:00 PM CST. Applicants must join GoColosseum to apply.
Schmidt Marine Technology Partners funds the development and deployment of ocean technology — sustainable fisheries, ocean observation, habitat restoration, and pollution — with grants typically $100,000 to $400,000. The initial proposal window closes July 31, 2026. Here's what makes this funder different and how to write for it.
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