Collaborate With Us

The DEVCOM ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is a competitive solicitation procedure used to obtain proposals for basic and applied research that support ARL’s mission. Eligible entities include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses). The BAA is the primary mechanism for DEVCOM ARL to award assistance agreements (grants and cooperative agreements) and can be used to award contracts and other transactions (OTs).

ARL’s mission is to operationalize science for transformational overmatch. The lab operationalizes science by purposefully partnering across our value system to deliver to the Army fundamentally advantageous change. Proposals are sought across many disciplines through this BAA for cutting-edge innovative research to produce discoveries that would have a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational capabilities and related technologies.

How to Apply

Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:

• Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
• Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
• Submit a Full Proposal

To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL.  ARL TPOCs are listed with each BAA research topic and are available to discuss the general need for the type of research effort contemplated and availability of funding before expending extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper and/or full proposal.  For full proposal application instructions please download and read the complete BAA.

Award types available for ARO topics

ARO has established several types of awards they regularly use to support awards under ARO research topics, based on applications submitted under this BAA.  Information about each of these specific award types is included in the complete BAA.  ARO is not limited to using these award types; however, they represent the majority of awards ARO is expected to make.

• Single Investigator (SI) Award – SI awards are the most common awards made to individuals, and small teams of, academic researchers through their institutions. The objective of the award is to attract outstanding university faculty members to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that will result in scientific discoveries.
• Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award – STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research.  STIR awards provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic research that could help shape new directions in research for the Army.
• Early Career Program (ECP) Award – ECP awards are one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by the Army on outstanding scientists beginning their independent careers.  The objective of the ECP is to attract outstanding early career university faculty members to pursue fundamental research in areas relevant to the Army, to support their research in these areas, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.
• Research Instrumentation (RI) Award – RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher education to conduct research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense.  Of the funds available to support ARO mission research described in this BAA, funds may be provided to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in the development of new research capabilities.
• Conference and Symposia Grant Award – The Army supports conferences and symposia in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational techniques.