DARPA BRIDGES
Bringing Classified Innovation to Defense and Government Systems
The BRIDGES initiative is a pilot effort sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to connect innovation from small companies that traditionally do not work with the United States Government to classified Department of Defense (DoD) research and development (R&D) efforts. Specifically, the goal is to connect innovators directly to the challenging problems that exist in the classified realm and to help develop solutions to those problems. BRIDGES aims to provide companies that demonstrate they can provide innovation and value to the DoD the means to obtain a facility clearance, and interact directly with DoD customers at classified levels.
To participate in BRIDGES, companies can submit short (~4 page) proposals against topic areas provided by the government (check the top right of this page for active topic areas, which will be released periodically) indicating what value they could bring to that area. The government will review all proposals, evaluate them, and invite selected companies to join the consortium, where each team within the consortium will be aligned to one of the topic areas.
As a member of the consortium, a company will be sponsored for a facility clearance and provided access to classified work areas and networks where they can perform classified work. They will also be invited to quarterly, in person meetings where they can interact with government personnel at classified levels up to TS/SCI/SAP