DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office seeks innovative proposals to determine the efficacy of using existing vegetation as sensors in operational environments.Vegetation is exposed to a variety of conditions. Because vegetation exists and persists within these environments, there is an interest in understanding how plants predictably respond to a variety of chemical exposures.
The vision of the eXVi program is to use the external observable response of local, unmodified, vegetation as a proxy sensor to chemical exposure. This will require an understanding of the complex relationships between observable plant responses to the internal metabolic response of xenobiotic chemical uptake and the implicit variability of the organism within its environment. The DoD uses both local sensing tools as well as remote sensing systems. eXVi will focus on the remote sensing detectability of plant/tissue response. An integrated and scalable approach to study both internal and external effects using techniques such as metabolomics, proteomics, predictive modeling, 3-D imaging, imaging spectroscopy, and other methods will be required. Developing the ability to use local, unmodified vegetation as a witness and reporter to chemical exposure activity could create new approaches to understanding both the sources and impacts of chemical contaminants.
The eXVi program is expected to consist of three potential phases, over a total period of 30 months.
This Phase 0 is a 6-month planning phase where the research and experiment plan to be used in Phases 1 and 2 will be fully developed. Funding can be used to accomplish planning, research, experimentation, acquisition of long lead items required for Phase 1 & 2, and/or other activities relevant to the overall program. Up to USD$450,000 is available for Phase 0.
Phase 1 (12 months) will focus on data collection, analysis and model build while Phase 2 (12 months) will focus on model refinement and extension, and stress testing.
Abstracts are due 10 January 2025.
Document
Exploration Announcement – xX Virentia: DARPA-EA-25-01
