Firefox
DARPA is funding R&D to advance a non-invasive optical brain-computer interface, including scanning components and non-digital data-processing architectures, toward a 100-channel human system.
⚑ Federal contract solicitation; applicant restrictions are not stated in the notice beyond DARPA acquisition rules. · Highly technical BCI program with human-neural-signal instrumentation and nontraditional computing emphasis.
This is a biomedical/optical engineering and advanced computing BCI program, not the team’s social-behavioral, survey, risk, or policy-evaluation work. No roster member has a published line in neural sensing, brain-computer interfaces, or the underlying hardware/data-architecture development.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-09-17
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 90 strong | technical depth: central; funds applied research |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 45 partial | funds applied research; prototyping/demonstration stage; deep-tech content |
| IPPRA | 40 partial | outside portfolio topics; social/behavioral work is none; funds applied research; biomedical core — IPPRA health lane is communication/crisis/policy (capped) |
Description
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed a non-invasive coherent optical system capable of recording neural signals in humans. To expand this foundational technology and enable the development of revolutionary, non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), DARPA's Firefox program is soliciting approaches to overcome key technological hurdles: 1) development of components enabling dynamic rastering/scanning of the incoming coherent optical signal to target multiple regions of interest and 2) development of new data processing architectures beyond the digital domain to handle the high data rates and computational burden inherent to scaling the amount of neural data recorded by the optical system. The ultimate goal of the Firefox program is to use these innovations to develop a 100-channel, non-invasive BCI with 50-micron spatial and 100-microsecond temporal resolution.
Eligibility
Applicant restrictions (federal contract). Set-aside: . Notice type: Solicitation. Organization: DEPT OF DEFENSE / DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY (DARPA) / DEF ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGCY.
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