Broadening Availability of Regimens for K-9s (BARK) - Open Topic - SBIR Topic DPA26BZ01-NP001

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This topic was temporarily posted by the Department of War SBIR Program on March 2nd 2026 and removed the following day.
We believe this topic is planned to be released once the SBIR program is reauthorized; however, this topic may ultimately be modified or withdrawn.

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Funding Amount:

Est. $250,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop medical products that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs to meet the health needs of both human warfighters and military working dogs.

Description:

Military working dogs (MWDs) are critical to national security, serving as force multipliers by enhancing the lethality and survivability of their teams through their unique senses, agility, and autonomy. Providing effective medical care for MWDs is critical but imposes significant challenges. Not all human medical products work for canines (K-9s), who sometimes require separate, specialized veterinary products. MWD handlers must therefore carry extra medical equipment to provide emergency care for their K-9 partner, exacerbating equipment loads and impeding operational capacity. Specialized equipment also expands medical materiel requirements and dependence on the less-resourced veterinary market, encumbering acquisition and sustainment activities.

Medical technologies that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs can address unmet needs of valuable MWDs while lessening the burden on medics, logisticians, and other contributors to force health protection. Species-interoperable medical technologies, particularly those supporting acute and tactical care, will improve lifesaving medical care for these MWDs while mitigating logistical and operational burdens of treating both human and K-9 warfighters.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting medical technologies that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs. Technologies of greatest interest allow for the replacement of existing products in medical sets with interoperable products, reducing the total amount of medical supplies—expanding capability without expanding the kits. Examples of specific technologies of interest include, but are not limited to:

Filters for donor plasma capable of removing cross-reactive antigens that impede compatibility across species;

Universal synthetic plasma designed with all necessary functional components for transfusion;

Sensors and form-factors that enable physiological monitoring (e.g., core body temperature and blood pressure) or triage in both humans and dogs;

Medical devices (e.g., splints, backboards, tourniquets, mechanical ventilators) designed to be rapidly adjustable at point of care for flexible use across anatomies;

Interoperable medical countermeasures (MCMs) and form-agnostic personal protective equipment to mitigate or protect against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats; and

Delivery mechanisms that can modulate dosing, including through excipients or combination devices (e.g., autoinjectors), to enable universal use of pharmaceuticals and MCMs.

The aim of the solicitation is to create a demonstrative prototype that can quickly progress to pre-clinical or clinical testing during a contracted SBIR Phase II period of performance (PoP). Research that merely tests existing products, including collection of data to titrate dosages or support label expansion of a marketed product to an additional species, is unlikely to achieve the degree of technical innovation a successful proposal should demonstrate. New drug discovery is discouraged but may be considered in particularly compelling cases. Products enabled by proposed research should feasibly be safe and effective in both humans and canines—to be verified in future trials—for use cases where no single existing product serves both patient sets. Technologies of interest should be capable of achieving substantially equivalent or superior performance in humans compared to currently approved options.

An initial white paper describing the technical approach is required and will be evaluated. If DARPA selects a white paper for further evaluation, the Government will issue an invitation to submit a full proposal. The technical white paper should include an overview of the proposed concept with details to support feasibility. The overview should address the bullets below, which are listed in order of importance:

Proposed concept: Describe the proposed research and medical product. Outline the design and operation of the main components that are being proposed for development and mode(s) of action. Use clear calculations, preliminary data, or mechanistic justifications to support feasibility of the proposed concept.

Concept of employment: Identify how the proposed product could be employed. Provide details on the intended use, indication, and effect, and the prevalence and impact of the addressed medical condition. What benefits, including new capabilities or improved metrics, does the proposed solution provide compared to current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) options (e.g., commercially available human- or canine-specific products)?

Path to market: Identify relevant predicate or otherwise established products that have been approved, licensed, authorized, or cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other relevant regulatory authority. Provide a general plan or strategy for securing market access and ensuring regulatory compliance for both humans and canines if the proposed technology is successful and shown to be safe and effective. For any special FDA programs noted (e.g., Breakthrough Device designation, 513(g)), ensure that the white paper describes how the medical product meets the program requirements.

Scalability: Provide a brief analysis of the feasibility of scaling the technology across both the DoW and industry. Are the achievable production costs low enough to merit widespread adoption, especially if alternative human- or canine-specific products are available? Is the system sufficiently familiar or intuitive to medics, handlers, and clinicians that large-scale deployment and administration wouldn’t require significant training or modification of protocols? What are the projected maintenance and storage requirements, operational availabilities, and service lifetimes, and, if applicable, how do they compare with COTS alternatives?

Who will win?

If you can achieve the objective above better than any other company on the market, you have a very high-likelihood of success and should apply.

Who is eligible to apply?

Any company that meets the following criteria:

• For-profit company

• U.S.-owned and controlled.

• 500 or fewer employees (including affiliates)

How Can BW&CO Help?

1) End-to-end support including, strategy, writing of the full proposal, and administrative & compliance support.

2) Proposal strategy and review.

3) Administrative & compliance support.

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