On Thursday, July 17, DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office (BTO) lands at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for a fast-moving seminar centered on AgxBTO—BTO’s new initiative to defend America’s food supply from natural and engineered threats.
Join BTO Office Director Dr. Mike Koeris, Deputy Director Dr. Rob Saperstein, and DARPA BTO program managers as they outline how AgxBTO will fund breakthrough solutions that:
- provide geo- and time-resolved early-warning systems for chemical or biological threats,
- deliver rapid-response countermeasures to protect and contain at-risk crops,
- supercharge crop engineering for long-term resilience,
- integrate predictive modeling of threat pathogenicity and counter-measure effectiveness, and
- create novel attribution methods to detect human intervention and guide decision-makers.
You’ll also learn how outstanding 7-minute pitch videos submitted via the DARPA ERIS Marketplace can lead to invitation-only workshops and a follow-on Pitch Day—key on-ramps to future DARPA funding.
Whether you’re an emerging ag-tech company, an academic researcher, or an established defense contractor, you’ll leave with clear action items, collaboration prospects, and direct points of contact at DARPA.
The formal program concludes at 12:30 PM, followed by lunch and open networking from 12:30 – 2:00 PM CT for deeper conversation with BTO leaders and fellow attendees.
Date: July 17, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM CT (program) | 12:30 – 2:00 PM CT (lunch & networking)
Venue: National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Space is limited—register early to reserve your seat.
Agenda coming soon!