Special Notice (SN) DARPA-SN-22-19
Recycling at the Point of Disposal (RPOD) Disruption Opportunity (DO)
Information Session
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring an Information Session webcast to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the anticipated Recycling at the Point of Disposal (RPOD) Disruption Opportunity (DO). The Information Session will be held via prerecorded webcast on February 8, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM. Advance registration is required for viewing the webcast. Note, all times listed in this announcement and on the registration website are Eastern Time.
The goals of the RPOD DO Information Session are to (1) introduce the research community (Proposers, Academia, and Government) to the RPOD DO vision and goals and (2) explain the mechanics of a DARPA DO and the milestones of this particular effort. DARPA anticipates releasing the RPOD DO in February 2022. If released, the DO will be available on https://sam.gov/. Following the event, DARPA may post the presented materials as well as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list to the DARPA/DSO Opportunities website.
Disruption Opportunities are released as Presolicitation Notices under the Disruptioneering Program Announcement (DARPA-PA-21-03) and are rapid, targeted, limited scope investments as part of an overall balanced portfolio. Disruptioneering enables DARPA to initiate a new investment in less than 90 days from idea inception [1].
[1] For the purposes of this Special Notice, “idea inception” is defined as the date an individual Presolicitation Notice (Disruption Opportunity) is posted to https://sam.gov).
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE AND DESCRIPTION
The Recycling at the Point of Disposal (RPOD) DO will evaluate the technical feasibility to recover (separate and coextract) multiple low volume fraction critical elements present in end-of-life electronic hardware (e-waste). Separation is defined as the extraction of various elements sequentially, and coextraction is defined as the extraction of a specified list of elements simultaneously from a feedstock containing a mixture of elements with other constituents. Contemporary approaches such as pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy for recovering critical elements from e-waste are best suited to recover a large volume fraction component from the feedstock and are ill-suited to recover multiple low volume fraction elements typically found in e-waste. While it is theoretically possible to exploit a combination of physical, chemical, and functional properties at a smaller scale for fractional recovery of critical elements and enable the development of technology for distributed recycling at the point of disposal, such approaches are limited by insufficient knowledge on chemistries that can work together.
RPOD aims to develop novel extraction chemistries and explore practical limits of yield, extraction efficiency, and purity to recover a selective list of critical elements from commercial and DoD e-waste, and demonstrate the technology in a benchtop hardware prototype. If successful, DARPA envisions that this technology could lead to novel innovations in recycling and manufacturing workflows to minimize the impact of supply chain disruptions to critical elements essential for high performance DoD hardware.
All awards made as a result of the RPOD DO issued under the Program Announcement for Disruptioneering will be Other Transactions (OTs) for prototype projects awarded under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 2371b. Potential proposers are highly encouraged to review Section 4 of the Disruptioneering Program Announcement for information on who may be eligible to respond to a Disruption Opportunity. The Disruptioneering Program Announcement is available on SAM.gov under Solicitation number DARPA-PA-21-03 (https://sam.gov/opp/13b47041a06d4820b5ff17e56c46c8cf/view).
Potential proposers may choose to share their information with other registrants via all, some, or none of the following options to discover potential collaboration opportunities:
1. Attendee List (publicly available): Participant contact information (name, organization, email address) will be included on a RPOD Information Session 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 (limited distribution): Information session registrants interested in discovering collaboration opportunities for this announcement may submit a one-page profile. The proposer’s profile should include 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 RPOD@darpa.mil no later than 4:00 PM on February 1, 2022. Following this deadline, the consolidated Proposer Profile will be sent via email to Information Session registrants who submitted a valid profile for distribution. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of the participants. Neither DARPA nor DoD endorse the information and organizations contained in the consolidated Proposer Profile document, nor does DARPA or DoD exercise any responsibility for improper dissemination of the Proposer Profile.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The RPOD DO Information Session will be webcast on February 8, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM. Note, all times listed in this announcement and on the registration website are Eastern Time. There is no registration fee for the Information Session webcast.
Registration opens: As of publication of this announcement.
Registration closes: February 1, 2022 at 4:00 PM or when capacity is reached, whichever comes first.
Advance registration via this website is required in order to receive access to the webcast and is mandatory for every individual intending to view the webcast either alone or as part of a group.
Registrants in excess of the maximum capacity limitations (350 individuals) may be added to a waitlist. Individuals who are unable to register because the deadline has occurred may request to be added to the waitlist. If slots become available due to cancellations, the slots may be filled on a first come, first served basis from the waitlist.
ELIGIBILITY
DARPA is hosting this Information Session to (1) provide potential proposers with information on whether and how they might respond to the government’s research and development solicitations and (2) increase efficiency in proposal preparation and evaluation. Therefore, events such as these are only open to registered potential proposers, i.e., the events are closed to the general public and media. For this particular DO, Information Session registration is open to potential proposers who are U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and foreign nationals.
All registrants who are not U.S. Citizens must complete and submit either a DARPA Form 60 (U.S. Permanent Resident and Foreign National Visit Request – e.g., industry or academia) or an Official Visit Request (foreign government personnel, only) through the Embassy based in Washington, DC, no later than 4:00 PM on February 1, 2022. Form 60 submission instructions are provided on the registration website and in the registration confirmation email. Contact your Embassy staff for assistance in submitting the Official Visit Request.
Q & A
Administrative, technical, and contractual questions about the RPOD should be emailed to RPOD@darpa.mil. All questions must be in English and must include the name and email address of a point of contact. Following the Proposers Day, DARPA will post an FAQ list to the DARPA/DSO Opportunities website.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Please refer to the RPOD Information Session in all correspondence.
DISCLAIMERS AND IMPORTANT NOTES
Viewing the RPOD DO Information Session webcast is voluntary and is not required to propose to the anticipated RPOD DO. Interested parties to this notice are cautioned that nothing herein obligates the Government to issue a solicitation. The Information Session does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals. This announcement is issued solely for information and planning purposes and is not a Request for Information (RFI). Since this is not an RFI, no submissions against this notice will be accepted by the Government, with the exception of the one-page Proposer Profile referenced above. No classified, ITAR controlled, or proprietary information shall be presented by the Government at the Information Session. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred to participate in this Information Session. Recording the Information Session webcast is not permitted.
Administrative, technical, and contractual questions about RPOD should be emailed to RPOD@darpa.mil.
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