The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a Proposers Day to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of an anticipated Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Synthetic Quantum Nanostructures (SynQuaNon) program. The Proposers Day will be held on August 18, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) in Arlington, VA. The event will be webcast for those who would like to participate remotely. Advance registration is required for attending the Proposers Day in person and viewing the webcast. Note that all times listed in this announcement and on the registration website are Eastern Time.
The goals of the SynQuaNon Proposers Day are to: (1) introduce the research community (industry, academia, and Government) to the SynQuaNon program vision and goals; (2) explain the mechanics of a DARPA program and the milestones of this particular effort; and (3) encourage and promote teaming arrangements among potential organizations that have the relevant expertise, facilities, and capabilities for executing a research and development program responsive to the SynQuaNon program goals.
DARPA anticipates releasing the SynQuaNon BAA in August 2023. If released, the BAA will be available on https://sam.gov/ and http://www.grants.gov/. Following Proposers Day, DARPA may post the presented materials and the list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to the DARPA/DSO Opportunities website.
To maximize the pool of innovative proposal concepts, DARPA strongly encourages participation by non‐traditional proposers (including small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first‐time government contractors) in events such as this and any subsequent solicitation.
The SynQuaNon program seeks to develop synthetic quantum materials that enable enhanced functionalities or novel capabilities for quantum information science (QIS). In particular, this program will develop and benchmark routes to enhanced superconducting (SC) nanoelectronic devices based on artificially structured electronic metamaterials. Innovations in functional materials engineering will be combined with device-scale benchmarking and characterization to demonstrate quantum nanoelectronic devices with enhanced performance, and improved Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) metrics. The range of devices that will be explored within this program as a testbed for novel quantum metamaterials include, but are not limited to, SC qubits capable of operation at elevated temperatures and frequency regimes; single photon detectors and bolometers with beyond-state-of-the-art sensitivity and timing resolution for sensing, imaging, and communications; and quantum-limited signal processing technologies for scalable computing, millimeter-wave communications, and quantum-enhanced sensing. It is also anticipated that experimental efforts within this program will leverage simultaneous theoretical and computational efforts in an accompanying funding opportunity investigating similar topics.
Registration is open now at https://events.sa-meetings.com/SynQuaNonProposersDay