Brenda Marie Rivers
AFWERX has unveiled a new list of focus areas for its Open Topics research and development initiative under the Small Business Innovation Research program.
The U.S. Air Force’s tech accelerator unit said in a statement that it partnered with the Air Force Research Lab and National Security Innovation Network for the Open Topics program in an effort to remove barriers to innovation and quicken the contracting process.
Interested applicants may propose their existing commercial technologies which may be deployed as dual-purpose capabilities to support Air Force missions.
Other focus areas under the Open Topics program include aircraft maintenance systems, space domain awareness technologies, small-satellite performance improvement tools and position, navigation and timing capabilities.
Applicants selected for a phase one contract may receive up to $3M if selected to move forward to the second phase. A phase three award will task the participant to deliver the technology to an Air Force entity under a sole-source agreement.
AFWERX has awarded over 900 contracts totaling $220M through the Open Topics initiative since its establishment in late 2018.
