FUNDING-DOD
-- PROPOSERS' DAY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FINDING ENGINEERING-LINKED INDICATORS
(FELIX); July 20, 2017
Agency
Intelligence
Advanced Research Projects Activity
Description
The
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) will host a Proposers'
Day Conference for the FELIX program on July 27, 2017 in anticipation of the
release of a new solicitation. The Conference will be held from 9 AM to 3 PM
EDT in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The purpose will be to provide
information on the FELIX program and the research areas the program aims to
address, to address questions from potential proposers and to provide a forum
for potential proposers to present their capabilities for teaming
opportunities. Conference attendance is voluntary and is not required to
propose to future solicitations (if any) associated with this
program.
PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION AND GOALS New biotechnologies have enabled the development of a
diversity of biological systems, with potential benefits ranging from new
vaccines and therapeutics to novel materials and improved crops. Of particular
note are genome editing tools that are commonly used worldwide to make
biological engineering more accessible, more convenient, and less expensive. At
the same time, these tools have the potential to be misused, accidentally or
deliberately, to adversely affect health, the economy, and national security.
The FELIX program aims to develop new capabilities that can detect engineered
changes within biological systems to expedite appropriate mitigation responses
to unlawful or accidental release of organisms. The FELIX program aims to
develop a suite of tools for the agnostic detection of engineered biological
organisms, ranging from viruses, bacteria, insects, animals and plants that are
either purposefully or accidentally developed and/or released with the potential
to cause harm. Ideally, the tools will expand the quality and amount of
information available to distinguish engineered organisms from natural
organisms, i.e., natural variation from intentional engineering. These may
include technologies such as novel methods and high throughput techniques in
genomics, systems biology, bioinformatics and evolutionary biology. The tools
should be able to improve the confidence in determining whether a system has
been engineered. Examples include identifying signatures that were previously
not accessible, using data from multiple interrogation points, increasing
sensitivity, improving the quality of the data, and leveraging technologies that
can increase throughput and reduce the complexity of sample analysis. FELIX is
anticipated to be a two-phase program, each of which will be comprised of two
separate focus areas: Focus Area 1: The goal of this Focus Area is to develop
platform tools and technologies that can be generalized across species to
detect signatures that a biological system has been
engineered.
Approaches
will be functional across a variety of samples, including model systems and
non-domesticated species and will enable detection of engineering-linked
indicators and/or improved data quality for various types of engineered
changes. Considerations for detecting engineered changes include the type of
change, location of the change(s) and frequency of engineered cells in a
complex mixture. Enhanced capabilities to be developed in this Focus Area
encompass both detection of previously undetectable signatures and significant
improvements in the speed, throughput and sensitivity of signature detection.
Focus Area 2: The goal of this Focus Area is to develop new capabilities for
modeling and analysis to enable detection of engineering-linked indicators.
Tools developed in this Focus Area will enable facile analysis of large,
complex data sets collected across multiple interrogation points and sample
types and will demonstrate detection of signatures of engineering from
synthetic data and/or model systems. These tools will also demonstrate
improvements in analysis time and/or reduced computational resources, increased
sensitivity and the ability to detect more sophisticated engineered changes.
Phase 2 will maintain the same Focus Area structure and will emphasize
optimization of platform and analysis tools and technologies, ultimately
resulting in development of transition-ready technical capabilities. This
includes both detection of increasingly sophisticated changes and an improved
ability to detect a small number of engineered changes within a complex
background. Collaborative efforts and teaming among potential performers are
highly encouraged. It is anticipated that teams will be multidisciplinary and
might include expertise in synthetic biology, systems biology, molecular
biology, biochemistry, virology, microbiology, immunology, structural biology,
proteomics, transcriptomics, immunology, genomics,
bioinformatics, evolutionary biology, computer science and statistical
analysis.
Attendees
must register no later than 5 PM EDT on July 20, 2017, at https://eventmanagement.cvent.com/FELIXPD.
Due to space limitations, attendance will be limited to the first 150
registrants and to no more than 3 representatives per organization.
The
morning session will include an overview of the program goals, technical
challenges and expected participation requirements. A description of how the
solutions will be evaluated will be provided.
The
afternoon will include a poster session to provide an opportunity for attendees
to present their organizations' capabilities and to explore teaming
arrangements. Attendees who wish to present organization capabilities for
teaming opportunities may submit a request through the registration web site.
Details on the poster format, and the procedure for submitting a request to
present, will be provided after approval to register for the conference has
been granted. Questions concerning conference & registration can be sent to
dni-iarpa-events@iarpa.gov.
Questions regarding the program can be sent to dni-iarpa-baa-17-07@iarpa.gov.
Announcement
Number:
IARPA-BAA-17-07
Closing
Date:
Attendees
must register no later than 5 PM EDT on July 20, 2017
Link
to Full Announcement
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=03b8998afb3cd2063d249fbff0d47dd7
Contact
Information
Amanda
Dion-Schultz