SIGMA | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The SIGMA grant opportunity (DARPA BAA 14-11) was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) solicitation run through DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) focused on next-generation radiation detection. The core aim of the program was to solicit innovative research concepts that could lead to novel, low-cost, high-efficiency, and packaged radiation detector technologies capable of finding hidden nuclear and radiological threats. In practical terms, the program targeted detector approaches that could better identify concealed special nuclear materials (SNM), such as materials relevant to nuclear weapons proliferation, as well as other radiological sources that might be used for harmful purposes. The emphasis on "packaged" detectors signals an interest not just in raw sensing physics, but in solutions that can be integrated into deployable, usable form factors rather than remaining as fragile laboratory demonstrations.

From a funding and contracting standpoint, SIGMA was offered as a discretionary research and development opportunity under the broad category of Science and Technology and other R&D. DARPA indicated multiple potential award instruments, including cooperative agreements, grants, other transaction/procurement contract types, and standard procurement contracts, reflecting the agency's flexibility in supporting early-stage to more applied research depending on the maturity and needs of a proposed effort. The opportunity fell under CFDA 12.910 (Research and Technology Development) and explicitly stated that cost sharing or matching was not required, which typically lowers the barrier for universities, small businesses, and other innovators to propose high-risk, high-payoff ideas without needing to secure additional mandatory non-federal funding.

Eligibility was listed as unrestricted, meaning the solicitation was open to any type of entity as long as it met the requirements described in the full announcement. That generally includes universities, nonprofits, small and large businesses, federally funded research and development centers, and other research performers, subject to any DARPA-specific conditions contained in the BAA text. The posting timeline shows it was originally posted on December 11, 2013, with an original and final closing date of January 30, 2014, and an archive date of March 31, 2014. This indicates it was a time-bounded BAA inviting proposals within that window, after which submissions would typically no longer be accepted unless DARPA issued amendments or follow-on solicitations.

The public synopsis points applicants to the full details in the attached Broad Agency Announcement (DARPA BAA 14-11), which would have contained the technical areas of interest, desired performance metrics, submission instructions, evaluation criteria, and administrative requirements. For applicants who had trouble accessing the announcement electronically, DARPA provided a BAA Coordinator contact for assistance. Overall, SIGMA was essentially a call for breakthroughs in radiation detector technology that combine performance and practicality, with the broader national security purpose of improving the ability to detect and identify concealed nuclear and radiological threats in real-world environments.

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