Use research transactions outside procurement contracts, grants and cooperative agreements; negotiate advances and repayment clauses that credit designated research-support accounts.
What this is not / limit: Research OT is not unrestricted production, lending or equity authority.
Executing role: DARPA Contracts Management Office or Service contracting/grants/agreements office; Performing laboratory or external research performer
Authority holder
Secretary of Defense and each military-department Secretary; Secretary of Defense acts through DARPA, DIU or another designated element
Eligibility gate
Basic, applied or advanced research purpose.
Avoid duplicating existing DoD research to maximum practicable extent; nonfederal funding should match federal funding to extent Secretary determines practicable.
Carry out directly defense-relevant prototypes, including proofs of concept, business processes, reverse engineering for obsolescence, commercial-technology pilots and agile development.
What this is not / limit: Above $100m through $500m: nondelegable written determination by specified contracting/agency head; above $500m: senior approval plus 30-day congressional advance notice.
Executing role: DARPA Contracts Management Office or Service contracting/grants/agreements office; Performing laboratory or external research performer
Authority holder
DARPA Director, DIU Director, military-department Secretary, or official designated by Secretary of Defense
Eligibility gate
At least one eligibility path: significant nontraditional contractor/nonprofit participation; all significant nonfederal participants small/nontraditional; one-third nonfederal cost share; or senior-procurement-executive exceptional-circumstances finding.
Competition to maximum extent practicable.
Funding condition
Existing lawfully available project funds; prototype instrument does not supply an appropriation.
All recorded limits
Above $100m through $500m: nondelegable written determination by specified contracting/agency head; above $500m: senior approval plus 30-day congressional advance notice.
Procurement-integrity law applies; agreement must address applicable audit access.
Implement or expand successful prototype results through a follow-on production contract or transaction, including sustainment; a successful consortium subproject need not await all other subprojects.
Noncompetitive follow-on requires competitive selection of prototype participants and successful completion of the relevant prototype.
Award to participants and documentation tying production to successful result.
Funding condition
Production/sustainment funds appropriate to the deliverable; prototype dollars do not assure a funded transition.
All recorded limits
A noncompetitive prototype does not automatically create noncompetitive production eligibility.
Follow-ons above $100m require covered-official findings and notice when exercised; paragraph(d) participation/cost-share tests do not reapply to production.