Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) | Apply Online

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) opportunity?

The Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) opportunity is a DARPA research and development funding program described in DARPA BAA 16-09. It is run through DARPA's Biological Technologies Office and focuses on advancing next-generation neural interface systems.

Which agency and office are sponsoring this program?

The sponsoring agency is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the program is run through DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO).

What is the focus area or category for this opportunity?

The opportunity is categorized under Science and Technology / Research and Development and is associated with CFDA 12.910.

When was this opportunity posted and when did it close?

The listing was posted on January 21, 2016 (and created the same day). The closing date was April 14, 2016.

Is this a grant, a contract, or something else?

The funding mechanism may include a cooperative agreement or a procurement contract, depending on how DARPA structures awards for selected performers and their specific work scopes.

Does the listing specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards?

No. The listing does not specify an award ceiling or an expected number of awards.

Who is eligible to apply?

The listing indicates broad eligibility, meaning the competition is generally open to a wide range of applicants (for example, universities, companies, nonprofits, and other organizations), subject to any additional eligibility details that may have been provided in the full announcement text.

What is DARPA trying to achieve with NESD?

NESD aims to push neural interface technology to an extremely ambitious scale and performance level by developing systems that can both record ("listen to") and stimulate ("write") neural activity in the human sensory cortex with unprecedented throughput.

What are the headline technical targets for recording and stimulation?

The program calls for a neural interface system capable of recording from more than one million neurons and stimulating more than one hundred thousand neurons.

Which brain regions are targeted by the program?

The targeted regions are within the human sensory cortex. Proposers choose the specific regions within sensory cortex. Examples given include the visual cortex and the auditory cortex.

Is the program limited to visual or auditory cortex?

The examples provided (visual cortex or auditory cortex) indicate a focus on sensory information pathways, but the solicitation states regions are chosen by the proposer within the sensory cortex.

Is DARPA looking for component technologies or a complete system?

DARPA is seeking an end-to-end system that can be designed, built, demonstrated, validated, and integrated into a coherent platform, rather than isolated components or purely theoretical designs.

What does "end-to-end system" mean in the context of NESD?

Based on the solicitation description, an end-to-end system implies a complete engineering solution spanning the interface to neural tissue, signal acquisition and conditioning, data transmission, computation and decoding/encoding algorithms, and stimulation delivery, all integrated into a single platform.

What does it mean that the system must "listen" to neural activity?

"Listen" refers to recording neural activity at very high scale (more than one million neurons), with high precision in detecting and capturing signals from the sensory cortex.

What does it mean that the system must "write" neural activity?

"Write" refers to stimulating neural activity at very high scale (more than one hundred thousand neurons) by delivering controlled stimulation patterns into the sensory cortex.

What does the solicitation emphasize about precision and signal handling?

The description highlights high-precision detection, transduction, and encoding of neural activity. This points to reliably capturing neural signals and converting them into usable electrical/optical/digital representations at scale, as well as generating meaningful stimulation patterns that can be delivered back into cortex in a controlled, information-rich way.

Is the system expected to be bidirectional?

Yes. The stated goals require a bidirectional neural interface with both high-channel-count recording (reading) and high-channel-count stimulation (writing), suitable for complex sensory-cortex signaling.

What kinds of applications are implied by the program description?

The description suggests that high-bandwidth, high-resolution sensory-cortex interfaces could support advanced prosthetic sensory restoration or other transformative capabilities, as implied by the emphasis on sensory information pathways and high-throughput read/write performance.

Does the opportunity require demonstration and validation?

Yes. The solicitation language emphasizes that DARPA wants systems that can be designed, built, demonstrated, and validated, indicating that performance should be shown and verified rather than only proposed conceptually.

What is a concise summary of what a successful NESD effort would deliver?

A successful effort would deliver a validated, high-performance, bidirectional neural interface system for the human sensory cortex, with recording capability greater than one million neurons, stimulation capability greater than one hundred thousand neurons, and demonstrated precision in capturing and translating neural activity into robust, information-bearing signals for both reading and writing.