IARPA Solutions Marketplace (IARPAOT26001): Video Pitch Pathway for AI, Cyber, and IC Solutions

What is the IARPA Solutions Marketplace?

The IARPA Solutions Marketplace (Announcement IARPAOT26001) is a long-term open call where companies pitch Intelligence Community (IC) relevant solutions through a five-minute video. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) runs it with its marketplace manager, The Applied Research Institute (ARI).

Solutions rated "awardable" by a peer panel are considered post-competitive. That means IC agencies, and federal agencies that share the relevant authorities, can view, negotiate, and award them without running a new competition.

For AI, cybersecurity, and dual-use founders, this is a low-cost way to get in front of IC customers. One video pitch can lead to multiple awards across multiple agencies for research, prototyping, test and evaluation, and even production.

Key dates and funding

• Open period: August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027
• Monthly cutoffs: submissions are collected each calendar month and close at 12:00 noon Eastern on the last day of the month. Late submissions roll into the next month.
• Next cutoff: October 31, 2026 at 12:00 noon Eastern
• Results: within 30 days after each monthly collection period closes (subject to submission volume)
• Funding: award amounts are not published. Payment, IP and data rights, schedule, milestones, and pricing are all negotiable, with flexible funding ceilings and durations.
• Marketplace listing: awardable solutions stay in the Marketplace for 24 months

IARPA recommends submitting at least three business days before a monthly cutoff so you have time to fix any compliance issues.

Who is eligible?

All US-based companies can participate, including small and large businesses, traditional and nontraditional contractors, and new entrants. Universities, nonprofits, and individuals are also eligible. Foreign universities, research institutions, and entities may submit if the submission complies with export laws in both their home country and the United States.

A SAM.gov registration is not required to submit. If you already have a Unique Entity ID (UEI), you enter it on the submission form, and your organization name should match your SAM.gov profile. Small businesses are automatically treated as nontraditional contractors.

What focus areas is IARPA looking for?

Pitches must fit at least one of IARPA's current strategic focus areas. Several are directly relevant to AI and machine learning companies.

1. Secure Communications

Non-attributable, secure, two-way communications built on commodity devices and infrastructure, with low probability of detection and the ability to work in many countries.

2. Cyber and Super Intelligence (SI) Security

Data poisoning detection, run-time evasion defense, protecting model weights from distillation or theft, agentic cyber defense, secure AI supply chains and compute clusters, federated learning, autonomous patch generation and verification, red teaming and benchmarking, and attribution of uncontrolled agentic systems.

3. Automating the Business of Research and Development

Tools that speed up federal R&D programs outside the research itself: generating and vetting program ideas, assessing technologies, accelerating contracting, automating test and evaluation, monitoring portfolio health, tracking impact, and automating declassification and sanitization.

4. Biometric Recognition and Multimodal Privacy Preservation

Recognizing individuals in unconstrained imagery, video, text, and audio, detecting spoofing, real-time speech anonymization, and generating text that cannot be traced to its author.

5. Economic Security

Automating review of foreign investment in US businesses, resolving ultimate beneficial ownership from noisy data, link analysis between entities, and finding chokepoints in the Intelligence Industrial Base.

6. Power and Energy Solutions

Novel batteries, energy harvesting, power for extreme environments, low-signature ruggedized energy systems, and resilient power in austere settings.

7. Agentic Super Intelligence Infrastructure, Integration, and Governance

Agentic control planes and orchestration, integration through Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent-to-Agent (A2A), and APIs, identity and policy controls for agents, secure model gateways, agent memory and state across federated environments, audit and provenance capture, and agent red teaming, containment, and governance.

8. Other Intelligence Community Relevant Solutions

Any other solution with the potential to materially impact one or more IC mission areas.

How do you apply?

Submit through the IARPA Solutions Marketplace opportunity page at iarpa.gov/marketplace. Each submission covers one solution and includes three parts:

• A video pitch of five minutes or less (HD 1920x1080, .mp4 under 1.0 GB, Rec709 or sRGB color space) that covers the problem, technical approach, mission impact, and pricing model
• A submission form with company details, TRL, focus area, business size, FOCI status, FedRAMP, ATO, Impact Level, and facility clearance status where applicable, plus keywords and a 1,500-character abstract
• A five-slide package in the format IARPA prescribes: submission information, company introduction, solution overview, technical review criteria summary, and pricing model

Everything must be unclassified, with no proprietary, export-controlled, or CUI content and no restrictive markings other than a valid copyright notice. Do not include rates or other proprietary pricing.

A peer panel of government, industry, and academic experts scores each pitch on four criteria: Defining the Problem (15%), Overall Technical Merit (45%), Mission Impact (30%), and Pricing Model (10%). A Government Selecting Official makes the final awardable or non-awardable call.

Is this a fit for your company?

This is a strong fit for AI, machine learning, and cybersecurity companies with a product or prototype that solves a real intelligence problem, especially in AI security, agentic AI infrastructure and governance, R&D automation, biometrics, or economic security analytics. Because submissions are short videos and slides rather than full proposals, the cost to compete is low, but technical merit and mission impact make up 75% of the score. A clear story for IC customers matters. BW&CO helps founders shape that story and build a path into defense and intelligence funding. Book a free funding fit call to see if your technology is a match.

Frequently asked questions

What is the IARPA Solutions Marketplace?

It is an open call from IARPA, managed by The Applied Research Institute, where companies submit five-minute video pitches for Intelligence Community relevant solutions. Pitches rated awardable are placed in a marketplace where IC and federal agencies can negotiate and award them without further competition.

When is the deadline for the IARPA Solutions Marketplace?

The Marketplace is open from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027. Submissions are collected monthly and close at 12:00 noon Eastern on the last day of each month, and results come within 30 days after each monthly cutoff.

How much funding can an IARPA Solutions Marketplace award provide?

IARPA does not publish award amounts. Awardable solutions are eligible for research, prototyping, test and evaluation, and production awards, with negotiable terms, flexible funding ceilings, and the potential for multiple awards from a single video submission.

Who can submit to the IARPA Solutions Marketplace?

All US-based companies of any size, traditional and nontraditional contractors, new entrants, universities, nonprofits, and individuals can submit. Foreign entities may submit if they comply with export laws in their country and the United States.

What do I need to submit?

Each submission includes a video of five minutes or less covering the problem, technical approach, mission impact, and pricing model, a completed submission form, and a five-slide package in IARPA's prescribed format. All materials must be unclassified and free of proprietary, export-controlled, or CUI information.

Can I resubmit if my solution is rated non-awardable?

Yes. Non-awardable solutions can be resubmitted in any later monthly collection period while the announcement is open. Every submitter receives ratings and assessor comments, and ARI offers weekly feedback sessions to help strengthen a resubmission.