DARPA Grants for AI Governance: The SBIR Path for Solo Developers

DARPA doesn't just fund defense contractors. Their SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program awards $50K–$250K Phase I grants to small entities — including solo developers with an LLC. Several active programs align directly with hyperbolic AI governance.

Programs That Align with SCBE

TAME — Trust in Autonomous Machine-to-machine Ecosystems

Focused on zero-trust architectures for autonomous systems. SCBE's 14-layer pipeline and cost-based attack pricing (H(d,R) = R^(d²)) maps directly to TAME's goal of quantifying trust mathematically, not just policy-checking it.

GARD — Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception

Adversarial ML defenses with mathematical guarantees. This is SCBE's core thesis: attacks aren't blocked by heuristics, they're priced out by geometry. The exponential cost scaling of hyperbolic space provides exactly the kind of formal guarantee GARD seeks.

AIxCC — AI Cyber Challenge

Joint program with ARPA-H. Phase 2 concluded at DEF CON 2024, with follow-on work in autonomous vulnerability detection. SCBE's L6 adversarial test tier (321+ test files, 6066 tests) demonstrates the kind of automated security evaluation AIxCC promotes.

PROOFS / V-SPELLS

Formal verification of software systems. The 6-tier test suite with mathematical property verification aligns with DARPA's push for provable security over probabilistic security.

The SBIR/STTR Path

Phase	Funding	Duration	Purpose
Phase I	$50K – $250K	6–12 months	Feasibility study
Phase II	$500K – $1.5M	24 months	Prototype development
Phase III	Non-SBIR funding	Varies	Commercialization

You do NOT need a large company. Single-PI small businesses are common Phase I awardees. Patent-pending status (USPTO #63/961,403) strengthens your proposal — DARPA values novel IP with clear defense applications.

How to Apply

Register on SAM.gov — takes 2–4 weeks, start immediately
Form an LLC — Washington State, ~$200
Monitor DSIP (dsip.darpa.mil) for SBIR topics under I2O (Information Innovation Office) and DSO (Defense Sciences Office)
Target BAAs mentioning "adversarial ML," "AI assurance," "trust metrics," or "formal methods"
Emphasize the math — hyperbolic geometry proofs of security beat heuristic approaches every time in DARPA evaluations

Timeline: BAA posted → 30–60 days to respond → 3–6 month review → award. Start SAM.gov registration now so you're ready when the right topic drops.

Why SCBE Fits

DARPA funds research that's too novel for industry, too practical for academia. A patent-pending framework that uses hyperbolic geometry to make AI attacks mathematically impossible — backed by 6000+ tests across 6 tiers — sits exactly in that gap. The math is the differentiator. The test suite is the evidence.