The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of autonomous molecular design to accelerate the discovery, validation and optimization of new, high-performance molecules for Department of Defense (DoD)
needs.
Specifically, DARPA seeks to develop new, systematic approaches that increase the pace of discovery and optimization of high-performance molecules through development of closed-loop systems that exploit, build and integrate tools for:
1) extracting existing data from databases and text; 2) executing autonomous experimental measurement and optimization; and 3) incorporating computational approaches to develop physics-based representations and predictive tools.
Such methods will ultimately enable AI-based design and discovery of completely new molecules that are optimized across multiple molecular properties for specific DoD applications.
Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, and systems related to small organic molecules.
Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.