Opportunity Information: Apply for DARPA RA 21 02
The I2O PostDoc Fellowship (DARPA RA 21-02) is a competitive DARPA Information Innovation Office research announcement that offers grant funding for innovative basic or applied research led by computer science postdoctoral fellows. It sits under CFDA 12.910 (Science and Technology and other Research and Development) and is framed as a discretionary grant opportunity run under the federal competitive funding rules referenced in 2 CFR 200.203. The central idea is to use targeted postdoctoral support to accelerate high-impact computer science research aligned with I2O priorities, while also responding to pandemic-era disruptions that made post-PhD career planning and faculty hiring more uncertain for both candidates and US universities.
The fellowship is organized around a defined set of ten research topic areas, each aimed at advancing core capabilities in security, AI, human-centered computing, and computational social science. The topics include: (1) Computational Theory of Insecurity, focusing on foundational models for understanding and reasoning about insecurity; (2) Cross-Disciplinary Knowledge Discovery, emphasizing methods that can extract or synthesize insights across fields or heterogeneous data sources; (3) Ego-Centric Emotion Recognition, aimed at recognizing emotions from first-person or wearable/egocentric sensing perspectives; (4) Multi-Scale Models of Social Dynamics, targeting computational models that connect individual behavior to group and societal outcomes; (5) Identifying Insecurity in Software of Unknown Provenance, which is about evaluating the security risks of software when its origin, supply chain, or trustworthiness is unclear; (6) Calming Advisor to Reduce Conflict Online, centered on interventions or systems that can de-escalate online conflict; (7) Rethinking Design through Imprecise Specifications, exploring new ways to build systems when requirements are incomplete, ambiguous, or evolving; (8) Software Source of Truth, focused on trustworthy representations of software artifacts and their properties; (9) Evaluating Generative Common Sense Question Answering, aimed at assessing and improving generative AI approaches to common-sense reasoning in QA settings; and (10) Computational Theory of Information Control, which broadly concerns formal or computational approaches to how information is controlled, constrained, or shaped.
The submission process uses a staged structure with multiple cycles, requiring an initial technical volume before inviting full proposals. The required Technical Volume I due dates are grouped into three Stage 1 cutoffs: Stage 1a due December 14, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.; Stage 1b due February 1, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.; and Stage 1c due March 1, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. Full proposals are then due in corresponding Stage 2 cutoffs: Stage 2a due April 5, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.; Stage 2b due May 3, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.; and Stage 2c due May 31, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The overall closing date for the opportunity is May 31, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. In practical terms, this structure lets applicants enter the pipeline at different points, but still follow a predictable path from an initial technical submission to a complete proposal.
Eligibility is described broadly in the notice as open to all responsible sources capable of meeting the government need, with details deferred to the formal eligibility section of the announcement. The sponsoring office is DARPA I2O, and the award instrument type is a grant. The public notice also states that any negotiations and awards will follow the laws and regulations applicable to the specific award instrument used under the research announcement. The posting does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards in the provided excerpt, so those elements would need to be confirmed in the full announcement text or related attachments.
Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a DARPA-backed postdoctoral research funding pathway tied to I2O mission areas, designed to generate publishable, high-leverage advances while also helping stabilize the post-PhD transition and faculty recruiting ecosystem affected by the pandemic, particularly for computer science researchers working in security, AI, and computational approaches to human and social behavior.Apply for DARPA RA 21 02
- The DARPA - Information Innovation Office in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "I2O PostDoc Fellowship" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.910.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2020-11-10.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-05-31. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Eligible applicants include: Others.
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