ENGAGE Learning to Solve Problems, Solving Problems to Learn | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

DARPA, through its Information Processing Technology Office, issued Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 11-36 titled "ENGAGE: Learning to Solve Problems, Solving Problems to Learn" to fund research and development of next-generation educational systems for very young learners, specifically children in Pre-K through Grade 3. The central goal is twofold: first, to capture and sustain early interest in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) using highly engaging learning experiences; and second, to turn those learning experiences into a rigorous research platform that can reveal which instructional approaches work best, for which students, and under what conditions. Rather than treating educational content and educational research as separate efforts, this opportunity emphasizes building learning tools that simultaneously teach and generate high-quality data about learning.

A key requirement is an educational game-based approach. DARPA is looking for game experiences that can compete with commercial entertainment products in terms of quality, usability, and engagement, not simple drill-and-practice software. The intent is that children will want to play, will play for meaningful amounts of time, and will encounter STEM ideas naturally through problem-solving. Within that game environment, performers are expected to embed strong pedagogical practices aligned with effective early-childhood instruction, while ensuring the game design supports clear learning objectives rather than incidental exposure. The framing "learning to solve problems, solving problems to learn" reflects an emphasis on authentic problem-solving as the vehicle for instruction, where the act of playing and overcoming challenges is also the act of learning core STEM concepts.

What makes this solicitation especially research-driven is the expectation that gameplay will be analyzed at scale across thousands of players. DARPA is explicitly interested in leveraging large populations of learners to identify patterns that smaller classroom studies cannot easily detect. Proposals should anticipate collecting fine-grained telemetry from play sessions and using it to infer learning progress, misconceptions, strategy use, persistence, and other behaviors that relate to learning. The analysis is expected to go beyond averaging outcomes across all children; instead, the program aims to determine the best approaches for teaching specific STEM topics while accounting for individual learning styles, demographics, and other factors the game can detect that may influence learning outcomes. In practice, this pushes applicants to combine educational design with robust data science, psychometrics/measurement, and experimentation methods suitable for real-world use by young children.

The solicitation also stresses measurement and metrics as a core design constraint. Games must be built so that they can identify and quantify learning-relevant indicators: what a child knows, what they are struggling with, what kinds of hints or scaffolds are effective, and how instructional sequences should adapt over time. That implies an interest in embedded assessment, adaptive learning pathways, and analytics that can support evidence-based conclusions about teaching strategies. DARPA is not only funding the creation of a compelling product; it is funding an instrumented learning environment capable of producing defensible findings about how children learn STEM concepts and which instructional interventions produce measurable gains.

Another important program objective is generalization beyond the game itself. DARPA wants to know whether the knowledge and skills gained in the game transfer to the classroom setting, meaning the learning should not be confined to in-game contexts or narrow patterns of interaction. Proposals should therefore consider evaluation strategies that connect in-game performance to external measures, such as classroom activities, teacher observations, or other assessments, and examine whether students can apply what they learned to new problems and real instructional environments. This focus on transfer underscores the program's applied nature: the games are a means to improve STEM learning broadly, not just within a closed digital experience.

From an administrative perspective, this is a discretionary funding opportunity under CFDA 12.910 (Research and Technology Development). DARPA indicated multiple possible award instruments, including cooperative agreements as well as other procurement contract mechanisms, reflecting flexibility in how awards could be structured depending on the nature of the proposed work and the degree of government involvement anticipated. No cost sharing or matching was required. Eligibility was listed as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to clarifications that may appear in the full announcement text, which typically means universities, nonprofits, companies (including game studios and edtech firms), and research organizations could all potentially propose, alone or as part of teams.

The opportunity was posted February 25, 2011, with an initial proposal due date of 12:00 noon Eastern Time on April 13, 2011, and a final closing date of 12:00 noon Eastern Time on May 27, 2011. An Industry Day was scheduled for March 15, 2011 to help potential performers understand program goals and expectations. The announcement was archived June 26, 2011. While the listing shows award ceiling and floor as 0, that typically indicates that specific funding ranges were not encoded in the database entry and would instead be described in the full BAA or determined by DARPA based on proposal merit, scope, and available funds.

In summary, ENGAGE is a DARPA solicitation seeking teams that can merge high-end educational game development with serious learning science and large-scale data analytics for early STEM education. The ideal solution would deliver a game that children genuinely want to play, uses evidence-based instructional design, continuously measures learning in a meaningful way, and produces research insights about what works across diverse learners, while also demonstrating that what children learn in-game can carry over into real classroom learning.

Browse more opportunities from the same agency: DARPA Information Processing Technology Office

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Next opportunity: Bureau of Reclamation, Notice of Intent to Award to The University of Colorado at Boulder

Previous opportunity: Lab to Marketplace Tools for Brain and Behavioral Research (SBIR R43/R44)

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