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IARPA welcomes questions from interested parties about the B24IC draft BAA. Questions must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on June 27.
Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific (NIWC Pacific) on behalf of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence/Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) seeks to develop and incorporate novel technologies and knowledge, leveraging the wider synthetic biology and biotechnology fields, to meet biosecurity threats of the 21st century. This includes developing new methods to collect, detect, analyze, and prevent traditional biothreats, while also addressing the latest opportunities and vulnerabilities associated with the advancing fields of biotechnology and synthetic biology.
IARPA seeks to develop new capabilities, matching the wider synthetic biology and biotechnology fields, ensuring the Intelligence Community’s (IC’s) capability to meet the biointelligence and biosecurity threats of the 21st century. This includes developing new ways to collect, detect, analyze, and prevent traditional biothreats while also addressing the promise and perils associated with the growing fields of biotechnology and synthetic biology. To address these challenges, the IC seeks to advance research across multiple sub-disciplines of biology.
In recent decades, the rise of synthetic biology has corresponded with critical advances in biology research. From polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the 1980s to next generation sequencing (NGS) in the late 90s to numerous mechanisms for genetic engineering enabling a variety of engineered organisms in the past decade, the branches of synthetic biology and enabling biotechnologies have advanced at a prodigious rate. The IC, and IARPA specifically, has pursued numerous research programs to advance security interests, but the needs of the IC require rapid advancement of numerous research topics to meet and leverage the advances the many biological disciplines have brought into reality in the past decades. These needs align with developing new methods for countering traditional biothreats of concern while also looking towards the future where bio-focused capabilities may enable or support IC relevant capabilities.
In particular, IARPA seeks novel research ideas from multidisciplinary teams pursuing advanced research topics capable of supporting the below interests:
- Biointelligence –Instruments, knowledge, and/or methods enhancing the IC’s capability to counter inappropriate use of biological sciences or leverage advancements derived from the biological sciences capable of advancing the IC’s ability to collect, analyze, characterize, secure, and utilize information related to threats to our nation; and
- Biosecurity – Methods for ensuring the security of instruments, knowledge, environments, or capabilities aligned with biological research or advancements which have the potential to cause harm or detrimentally impact other organisms, materials, or infrastructure.
Review the full B24IC draft BAA.
Source: SAM
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