Revolutionizing Sensory Technology: Draper Lab Wins $9.3M Contract for Tellus Program Development

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc.,* Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $9,331,487 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 Cambridge, Massachusetts (76%); Boston, Massachusetts (11%); Boulder, Colorado (6%); and Raleigh, North Carolina (7%), with an expected completion date of Nov. 5, 2026.  Fiscal 2023 research, development, test, and engineering funds in the amount of $2,402,754 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 (HR0011-25-C-0243).