Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026 | DARPARA2502

Opportunity Information: Apply for DARPARA2502

The Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026 is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funding opportunity designed to bring promising early-career researchers into DARPA's national security research ecosystem. Run by DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, the program focuses on identifying "rising stars" who are in junior faculty roles at universities or in equivalent early-career research positions at non-profit research institutions. A major emphasis is reaching researchers who have not previously received DARPA funding, with the goal of introducing them to Department of Defense (DoD) mission needs and DARPA's core purpose: creating new capabilities and preventing technological surprise for U.S. national security.

The program provides high-impact support for innovative research ideas that could lead to transformative DoD capabilities. In practical terms, YFA is meant to help early-career investigators pursue bold, original technical directions that align with national security challenges, while also building a pipeline of future research leaders who understand how to translate frontier science and engineering into defense-relevant outcomes. The long-term intent is not only to fund individual projects, but to develop the next generation of researchers who will continue working on high-consequence problems tied to security and defense.

This opportunity is issued as a discretionary funding program and uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, which generally indicates DARPA expects active engagement and collaboration during the course of the work (as opposed to a more hands-off grant). The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, and it is listed under CFDA 12.910. The opportunity number is DARPARA2502, and the funding opportunity title is Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026. The original closing date for submissions is January 20, 2026. While the source listing does not provide an award ceiling, number of expected awards, or other dollar-amount details, those items are typically addressed in the full Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) and its eligibility and submission sections.

Eligibility is described broadly in the summary as "all responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal," with the specific eligibility requirements directed to the BAA's Eligibility Information section. The eligible applicant category is listed as "Others," which usually signals that eligibility is not limited to a narrow set of standard applicant types and that the authoritative determination should be made by reading the BAA language carefully, especially for definitions of junior faculty status, equivalent non-profit roles, institutional requirements, and any restrictions related to prior DARPA funding history.

Overall, YFA 2026 is best understood as a DARPA on-ramp for early-career academics and non-profit researchers: it funds ambitious, high-leverage technical research, connects awardees to DoD-relevant problem sets, and helps cultivate a cohort of investigators prepared to contribute to DARPA's mission-driven approach to breakthrough science and technology for national security.

• The DARPA - Defense Sciences Office in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.910.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-09-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-01-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for DARPARA2502

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