Program Objective and Description

The Cornucopia program will enable the capability to produce nutritionally complete, microbial-origin foodstuffs at the point of consumption, consistent with military nutritional standards, starting with air (CO₂, N₂), water, electricity, and microbes. The term “microbe” refers to bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, or microalgae. Out of scope is any approach that cultivates animal- or higher plant-derived cells or organisms. Cornucopia aims to design and test systems that are capable of producing highly nutritious, palatable microbial-origin food to enhance force readiness and operational resilience, prolong mission endurance, defend against supply chain disruptions, support disaster relief and influence operations, and mitigate cascading vulnerabilities in the homeland in the face of an attack or disaster.

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Event Participation

DARPA highly encourages teaming before proposal submission and will facilitate the formation of teams with the necessary expertise. Potential proposers may choose to participate in either, none or both of the following options:

1. Attendee List (publicly available): participant contact information (name, organization, email address) will be included on a Cornucopia Proposers Day Attendee List published on the DSO Opportunities website. The registration website will ask registrants to indicate whether they approve publication of their contact information.
2. Proposer Profile List (limited distribution): interested parties will submit a one-page profile consisting of their contact information (name, organization, email, telephone number, mailing address and, if applicable, organization website), a brief description of their technical competencies, and, if applicable, their desired expertise from other teams/organizations. All profiles must be emailed to Cornucopia@darpa.mil no later than Friday, December 10, 2021 at 5:00 PM EST. Following the deadline, the consolidated teaming profiles will be sent via email to the proposers who submitted a valid profile. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of the participants. Neither DARPA nor DoD endorses the information and organizations contained in the consolidated teaming profile document, nor does DARPA or DoD exercise any responsibility for improper dissemination of the teaming profiles.

Pre-recorded Slide Show

Attendees may be afforded the opportunity to submit a 2-minute pre-recorded voice track presentation during the webcast outlining their interests and capabilities. The purpose of these presentations is to facilitate teaming discussions among the attendees. Upon registering, attendees may indicate if they would like to submit a pre-recorded presentation. Due to limited availability, DARPA will accept submissions on a first-come, first-served basis, and does not guarantee that these requests to brief will be fulfilled. Submitted briefing materials are limited to a single, PDF-format slide, which should be appropriate for public release, as they will be shared with the session via webcast. The slide must be submitted to Cornucopia@darpa.mil by 5:00 PM EST on December 10, 2021. DARPA will contact submitters upon receipt of their slide with additional guidance for the webcast.

Webinar Platform