Unbiased Behavioral Discovery Platforms
SBIR Opportunity Analysis
DARPA, within the Department of Defense, is seeking SBIR solutions for unbiased behavioral discovery platforms to improve detection and quantification of animal behavior for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threat countermeasure development. The effort calls for automated, high-throughput prototype instruments that can identify novel behaviors in preclinical animal models and support evaluation of intervention efficacy across relevant physiological indications. Proposed systems must use non-invasive measurements, avoid human annotation, integrate multiple behavioral feature spaces, minimize handling, and demonstrate better sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, and generalizability than state-of-the-art behavioral assays. Phase I centers on prototype development and validation in one animal model, while Phase II advances the technology toward full-scale laboratory application and compatibility across additional use cases such as toxic environments, high-throughput settings, and other animal models. Applications are due by May 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC through the DoD SBIR/STTR topic portal.