ERIS Shopping Notice - Thermal Management

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has issued Shopping Notice DARPA-SN-26-103 to identify game-changing, foundational thermal management mechanisms capable of disrupting legacy thermodynamic limits. This active search focuses on novel, physics-based approaches to route, dissipate, or transduce extreme thermal loads for critical Department of Defense applications, including hypersonic vehicles, directed energy weapons, space systems, and edge computing. Rather than modular cooling packages, DARPA is seeking innovations that fundamentally expand performance boundaries and provide rigorous evidence through mathematical derivations, first-principles thermodynamics calculations, or preliminary modeling data. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis through September 30, 2026. To be considered, solutions must be deemed awardable through the standard ERIS assessment process. Evaluation focuses on the technical innovation's ability to overcome current state-of-the-art limitations, specifically regarding size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C2) penalties. DARPA prioritizes multidisciplinary teams with expertise in materials science, thermodynamics, multiphysics modeling, and advanced manufacturing. Existing solutions in the ERIS Marketplace should be submitted via email to the ERIS Coordinator, while new solutions must be uploaded to the DARPAConnect ERIS Portal under the Strategic Systems Topic Area.