DARPA Director Dr. Regina Dugan

On November 15, seven University of Washington faculty members from Biology, Bioengineering, and Computer Science & Engineering were privileged to share a 2-hour breakfast in Seattle with DARPA Director Regina Dugan, Deputy Director Ken Gabriel, IIO Office Director Dan Kaufman, IIO Program Manager Ben Cutler, and U.S. Marines Operational Liaison Col. Robert Durkin.

One message that came through loud and clear:  DARPA leadership is intently focused on understanding how well DARPA is working in the eyes of the academic research community.  There were many probing questions exploring the details of interactions and relationships.

Talk to your DARPA Program Manager was emphasized repeatedly.  For example, in order to allow headquarters staff to focus on technical matters, many DARPA contracts are administered by other organizations.  Some of these organizations may not have gotten the memo about DARPA’s current approach to reporting requirements – less frequent than in the past, and structured to help advance the research.  It’s the Program Manager who ultimately calls the shots – but s/he may not be aware of reporting requirements imposed by intermediate parties.

We have reported here several times on changes at DARPA under the new Director – see, for example, DARPA a year later.  It’s real.