Smash Program Announcement

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals for the Smash program, which aims to create technologies that enable efficient, scalable element separation across the periodic table. The program will develop technologies that provide an asymmetric advantage in yield, purity, and energy utilization by leveraging parallel processing. Proposers should focus on the technological feasibility of separating any and all elements within a feedstock. The program will consist of two phases, with Phase 1 emphasizing proof-of-concept experiments and modeling, and Phase 2 driving prototype development. Some key points about the job and scope-of-work include: * The Smash program seeks to revolutionize material processing in the United States by developing technologies that enable universal processing of diverse feedstocks with near-zero waste and high energy efficiency. * The program will pursue system-level innovation rather than incremental improvements, pioneering approaches that enable efficient parallel processing of solid feedstocks into multiple elemental streams. * Proposers should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems, and exclude research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice. * A key objective of Smash is a clear transition pathway to commercial or government adoption, and proposers must include a commercialization plan describing how the technology will mature and achieve practical deployment. * The program will have regular engagement with performers as commercialization strategies are being developed, and a full commercialization plan must be in place by the month 11 milestone. * The government will assemble and fund an Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) team to engage and collaborate with performer teams throughout the duration of the program. * The program metrics include element utilization, process efficiency, and mass throughput, and performers will be required to demonstrate a resolvable concentration of any separated element of <0.1% in Phase 1 and <100 ppm in Phase 2. * The program will have a 2-day Principal Investigator (PI) meeting approximately every 12 months, and regular teleconference meetings will be scheduled with the government team for progress reporting and problem identification and mitigation. * Performers will conduct three capability demonstrations throughout the course of the program, and the IV&V team will furnish feedstocks to validate the performer systems. * The program will require recurring deliverables, including monthly technical reports, quarterly technical reports, quarterly commercialization plan updates, and yearly Principal Investigator (PI) reviews. * The government expects that Phase 1 program goals may be met by proposed efforts for fundamental research and non-fundamental research, and some proposed research may present a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense. * The government anticipates restrictions on the resultant research that will require the awardee to seek DARPA permission before publishing any information or results relative to the program. Some benefits of this opportunity include: * The potential to develop revolutionary technologies that can transform the field of material processing * The opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of performers, including industry, academia, and government entities * The potential for commercialization and transition of the developed technologies to practical applications * The opportunity to work with a highly experienced and knowledgeable team, including the DARPA program manager and the IV&V team