Defense Advanced Research Project Agency Launches Social Media Platform in Bid to Bring Researchers and Funding Sources Together

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced that it has created a new social-media platform in efforts to expedite the process of technology development in the U.S. The platform, named Polyplexus is a public-access platform open to all that is designed to increase access to scientific evidence and accelerate hypothesis development, research proposal generation, and research sponsor engagement. One of the primary goals of the platform is to provide a place for those conducting research to connect with parties in a position to help them take this research to the next level.

The Polyplexus platform is comprised of three integrated components:

• A public information feed that will allow users to share relevant research and link to other research through summary statements, referred to as micropubs, which resemble the twitter platform;
•  A private tool for cultivating innovative new ideas, referred to as micropub portfolios;
• An incubator environment.

The incubator environment is specifically designed to allow research sponsors in government and industry the opportunity to post relevant topics and link up with research and development specialists, who will help them address their challenges.

“Crowdsourcing on the internet works when the solution exists and can be found,” said John Main, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “However, no amount of crowdsourcing will ever work if it’s a research and development problem that must be solved, because the solution does not yet exist. That’s why we built Polyplexus as a productivity platform rather than a crowdsourcing platform.”

There are three Polyplexus incubators currently live. These incubators focus on Quantum Machine Learning; Human Learning; and Strategic Technological Surprise.

For more information about the Polyplexus incubator and to create an account, visit: https://polyplexus.com/

For more information about the Quantum Machine Learning incubator, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xEFpV

For more information about the Human Learning incubator, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xEFpA

For more information about the Strategic Technological Surprise incubator, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xEFpm