Recent Grants

The mission of the Information Innovation Office (I2O) is to ensure enduring advantage for the U.S. and its allies across a broad range of information technologies through the advancement of core technical foundations as well as the design of novel application concepts based on these foundations. I2O's core technical work ranges from artificial intelligence and data analysis to secure engineering and formal methods.

The Information Innovation Office (I2O) creates groundbreaking science and delivers future capabilities in the information and computational domains to surprise adversaries and maintain enduring advantage for national security. I2O efforts typically address one or more of the following key thrust areas:

Transformative AI

• We seek to invest in trustworthy, disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and methodologies relevant to national security. We define trustworthy systems as ones that operate competently, interact appropriately with humans, and behave ethically and morally.  

Resilient, Adaptable, and Secure Software and Complex Systems 

• We believe a world without software vulnerabilities is possible. We seek to use formal methods and third-wave AI to make it easier to understand, build, update, repair, and restore complex software and cyber-physical systems with multi-system-wide, security relevant correctness guarantees. We also seek methods to provide continuing operation of a system under duress. Techniques and tools are provided as open-source software for use by the research and software development communities, the defense industrial base (DIB), and the Department of Defense (DoD). Example systems are large scale manufacturing, financial systems, large scale infrastructure, and transportation systems.

Offensive and Defensive Cyber Security and Privacy

• We're leveraging advances in state-of-the-art AI and secure and resilient tools and technologies to produce trustworthy cyber capabilities that operate beyond human capacity and speed. We seek capabilities to assure the privacy of users and user information and actions. Our efforts anticipate adversary countermeasures to create enduring capabilities. 

Fighting in the Information Domain

We focus on measuring the health of and protecting and detecting attacks on the information domain, broadly construed. Our research portfolio spans many levels: 

• Cognitive: Beliefs and attitudes
• Semantic: Knowledge that's specialized to particular domains, e.g., scientific discourse, the financial system, supply chains, and other areas
• Tracking: Recording the digital artifacts of interactions with the myriad digital devices required by modern life
• Transport: Delivery of electronic messages in many forms and with various gradations of observability

I2O may also consider submissions outside these thrust areas if the proposal involves the development of novel capabilities having a promise to provide decisive information or computational advantage for the United States and its allies. I2O seeks unconventional approaches that are outside the mainstream, challenge accepted assumptions, and have the potential to change established practices radically. Proposed research should enable revolutionary advances in science, technology, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of the art.