- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals to enable the development of advanced plant technologies (APT) for the detection of environmental threats.
The goal of the APT program is to control and direct plant physiology to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear threats, as well as electromagnetic signals. Plant sensors developed under the program will sense specific stimuli and report these signals with a remotely recognized phenotype (e.g., modified reflectance, morphology, phenology, etc.). These stimuli should be related to human activities (e.g., intentional or accidental chemical or biological release) and not be a natural function of the plant. Classes of DoD-relevant stimuli include: biological agents (e.g., spores, virus, bacteria, toxins), chemicals (e.g., organic, inorganic), and radiative signals (e.g., EM, RF, particle decay). Substitute stimuli that are similar to but less toxic/dangerous than existing national security threats, and that are equally difficult to detect, are preferred.
To accomplish the above program goals, proposers will leverage state-of-the-art plant gene alteration techniques towards three specific and complementary technical objectives:
1. Identify, test, and integrate genetic components for plant sensing and reporting.
2. Tailor plant resource collection and allocation to support sense-and-report traits.
3. Ensure long-term sense-and-report capability by engineering plants to be robust in intended environments.
Meeting both the sensor and survivability technical goals of the APT program will require a combination of plant genomics emerging technologies, precision gene editing tools, and novel methods for engineering new sensing capabilities and physiological responses. Proposing teams should include experts in diverse fields including plant physiology, gene editing, biochemistry, modelling, phenotyping, remote sensing, and plant ecology. It is expected that proposals will involve multidisciplinary teams that include expertise from multiple complementary disciplines (e.g., synthetic biology, sensor technology, plant genomics and ecology).
Proposers are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract in advance of a proposal to minimize effort and reduce the potential expense of preparing an out of scope proposal. The deadline for submitting a pre-proposal is January 11, 2018, 1:00 PM PST. Full proposals may be submitted irrespective of comments or feedback received in response to the abstract. The full proposal due date is February 21, 2018, 1:00 PM PST. Questions about this opportunity may be directed to APT@darpa.mil, DARPA/BTO, ATTN: HR001118S0005.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)