Information Tethered Micro Automated Rotary Stages (ITMARS) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Information Tethered Micro Automated Rotary Stages (ITMARS) opportunity is a DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeking research proposals for high-risk, high-payoff work in advanced micro-scale rotary positioning and actuation concepts. The program focus, as reflected in the title, is on micro automated rotary stages that are "information tethered," meaning the effort is centered on approaches where rotation, positioning, and control are closely coupled to sensing, feedback, and information flow rather than being purely mechanical improvements. DARPA is explicitly looking for ideas that could produce revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems, and it draws a clear line against proposals that mainly offer incremental, evolutionary improvements to existing technology.

This posting is an amendment to an earlier announcement, and the core change is administrative and metric-specific rather than a total rewrite of the technical goals. The amendment revises a specific performance metric in Table 1 for Phase 2, with the change highlighted in yellow in a "conformed" BAA document (the updated consolidated version of the solicitation text). In practical terms, that means anyone preparing a proposal would need to use the revised Phase 2 metric when describing their technical approach, milestones, and how they will demonstrate success. The remainder of the original technical intent remains in place, but proposers are expected to align their deliverables and evaluation plans to the updated metric.

From a funding and contracting standpoint, DARPA indicates multiple possible award instruments under this BAA: cooperative agreements, grants, other procurement contracts, and potentially other mechanisms. The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, and the associated CFDA number is 12.910 (Research and Technology Development). There is no cost sharing or matching requirement stated, and eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the solicitation is generally open to any type of entity (for example, universities, companies, nonprofits, and other organizations), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the full BAA text.

The timeline information included in the notice shows that the opportunity was originally posted on December 5, 2008, with an archive date of December 30, 2009, and a closing date listed as December 5, 2009. It also specifies proposal submission milestones with strict deadlines at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Abstracts were due on a Monday in early February 2009, with the updated abstract due date reflected as February 9, 2009 (replacing an earlier February 2 date), and full proposals were due on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Those details matter because DARPA BAAs often use an abstract process to manage proposal flow and to ensure submissions match program intent before teams invest heavily in full proposals.

For communications and submission-related questions, DARPA directs administrative correspondence to the BAA email address listed in the announcement (BAA08 74@darpa.mil). If there are issues accessing the full announcement electronically, the notice provides a secondary point of contact through the program side: Dr. Amit Lal, the MTO Program Manager, located at DARPA/MTO, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714, with reference to the BAA Coordinator. The notice also points applicants to the MTO Solicitations page for additional information links and solicitation materials.

A notable administrative detail is that the award ceiling and award floor are both listed as 0 in the summary data. In many government listings, that typically signals that DARPA did not specify a fixed per-award minimum or maximum in the public synopsis and instead expects the range of award sizes and the number of awards to be determined by the quality of proposals, program scope, and available funding, as described in the full BAA.

Overall, ITMARS is best understood as a DARPA R&D solicitation aimed at pushing beyond conventional micro-positioning or micro-actuation by combining micro-scale rotary motion with tightly integrated sensing and information-driven control, with an emphasis on bold, non-incremental technical leaps. The key update in this particular amendment is the revision of one Phase 2 performance metric in Table 1, which applicants would need to incorporate into their technical plans and success criteria using the conformed BAA document as the controlling reference.

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