Bio-Innovation Unleashed: Battelle Memorial Institute to Pioneer Tellus Program with $10.67M Contract

The Battelle Memorial Institute,** Columbus, Ohio, has been awarded a $10,670,749 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, no options, for the Tellus program. This contract provides for the development of a platform Methodology for the rapid and modular design of microbe-based sensing systems to include tailoring of input stimuli and output signals, biologically encoded signal processing, and response times. Work will be performed in Columbus, Ohio, (71%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (8%); and New York, New York (21%), with an expected completion date of Nov. 7, 2026.  Fiscal 2023 through 2024 research, development, test, and engineering funds in the amount of $2,500,000 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition under broad agency announcement HR001123S0027 Tellus, and seven offers were received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR001124C0441).