Science and Technology Opportunities

The official proposal submission website for the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD announces the opening of the following SBIR and STTR funding opportunities:

• Air Force X23.6 CSO

The United States Air Force (USAF) seeks in-flight, platform agnostic fuel transfer hardware technology that can provide fuel to both receptacle and probe equipped receivers. The USAF is interested in any and all capabilities that can achieve the desired outcome of enabling Department of Defense (DoD) and joint coalition aircraft the ability to transfer fuel from legacy and future aircraft to legacy and future tactical aircraft. Initial scoping for design considerations should focus on a preliminary use for the F-15.

Broad Agency Announcement Schedule

On this page, you can view active BAAs (pre-released or open for proposal submission) and upcoming BAAs, as well as access archived BAAs. DoD Components may release BAAs outside of the pre-scheduled Joint DoD BAA cycles. These will appear as Component BAAs, with a pre-release, open and close date, or as Annual BAAs, with topics released throughout the year with varying open and close dates. Please refer to each topic under the Annual BAAs for more information.

SDA Issues Request for Future Optical Communication Waveforms

Posted On: November 6, 2023

Response Date: December 8, 2023

SDA seeks industry feedback on optical communications waveforms, ongoing work with other U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) agencies on datalinks and waveforms, and integrating datalinks and waveforms on future Tranches of the Proliferated Warfighter Defense Architecture (PWSA). This request for information (RFI) includes risk reduction efforts to support low data rate links, and long-range links, specifically space-to-space geometries of low earth orbit (LEO) to medium earth orbit (MEO) (L2M) and LEO to geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) (L2G) ranges.

Responses to this RFI will specifically inform SDA's Transport Layer Tranche 3 planning beginning in fiscal year 2024 (FY 2024) for subsequent acquisition efforts to be slated to begin in FY 2025. As currently envisioned, future generations of the Transport Layer may have different space vehicle variants. Tranche 3 is expected to operate via multiple planes at approximately 1000km in 80–90-degree inclination orbits.

For more information on this RFI and for proposal submission instructions, please visit the link below. Responses are due by 5:00

Accelerating the Development and Testing of Materials for Low Earth Orbit

Brief Program Summary: This program is anticipated to be a single phase consisting of a 36 month base technical effort with a 24 month optional period, plus 3 months for the final report. The technical effort of the program will focus on development of a combined computational and experimental approach for materials discovery and development low-earth-orbit applications through strong, organic collaborations between the Recipient and USAF researchers. The program will seek to grow these collaborations by funding graduate students at the Recipient institution(s) performing exceptional basic research in materials problem spaces to advance materials for space and spacecraft systems. Research under this program should produce actionable, quantifiable information that furthers fundamental knowledge of materials systems.

The Recipient is expected to consist of an interdisciplinary team including researchers with expertise in materials science, aerospace systems, and data analytics. As such, multi-investigator teaming across departments, disciplines, and institutions (if applicable) is highly encouraged. Emphasis should be placed on transformative concepts, over incremental efficiency gains, to demonstrate the capacity to accelerate technology development for space applications. Developing students with cross-expertise in the areas listed above and the ability to effectively communicate between these technical communities is paramount. To ensure the collaborative effort, graduate students participating in the CoE are expected to perform research under the direction of an AFRL S&E for approximately 8-12 weeks each year on site at AFRL, Wright-Patterson AFB. Additional quarterly visits between the Recipient and AFRL S&Es involved in the program are expected.