Reengineering Enabling Sleep Transitions in Operationally Restrictive Environments (RESTORE)
Revolutionizing sleep quality in restricted environments using noninvasive neuromodulation methods to boost cognitive performance.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
DARPA - Defense Sciences Office has archived this opportunity.
Funder: DARPA - Defense Sciences Office
Due Dates: April 14, 2025 (Abstracts) | June 4, 2025 (Questions) | June 18, 2025 (Full Proposals)
Funding Amounts: Multiple awards anticipated; award size and duration depend on project scope; 24-month projects expected; no explicit ceiling stated.
Summary: Supports innovative research using noninvasive neuromodulation to enhance sleep quality and cognitive performance under sleep-restricted conditions.
Key Information: Human subjects research is required; IRB and secondary OHARO review mandatory; animal studies are out of scope.
Description
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is soliciting proposals for the RESTORE program, which aims to revolutionize sleep quality and cognitive performance in operationally restrictive environments. The program focuses on developing and validating multimodal, multitarget, noninvasive neuromodulation interventions to repair disrupted sleep architectures caused by sleep restriction, with the ultimate goal of improving cognitive performance.
RESTORE is a 24-month, single-phase program. It seeks to demonstrate precision control of sleep macro- and micro-architectures (e.g., REM, NREM, sleep spindles, K-complexes) to optimize cognitive performance during periods of severe sleep restriction (e.g., 3 hours of sleep per night for 3–7 days). The program is designed to provide safer, more effective alternatives to traditional pharmacological interventions (e.g., hypnotics, stimulants) for maintaining cognitive readiness in military and other high-demand settings.
Proposed research must go beyond incremental improvements and should enable revolutionary advances in sleep science and performance psychology.
