Apply to VEDDER.
Cohort 1 intake: opens 12 October 2026, closes 30 October 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Intake for Cohort 1 has not opened yet. Everything you need to prepare is below: the eligibility screen, the challenge question sets, and the dates.
Before you apply, confirm that:
- Your company is organized in the United States and majority U.S.-owned and controlled.
- You can disclose all sources of foreign investment or funding. Foreign ownership, control, or influence is evaluated during review and may be disqualifying.
- Personnel assigned to VEDDER work will meet program security requirements. U.S. citizenship is required for key personnel; restrictions on foreign-national participation apply.
- You have a demonstrable technology, not only a concept. Applicants self-rate technology readiness (a TRL reference is provided in the form).
- You are willing to team or partner where the challenge calls for it.
- You can describe how the technology succeeds commercially with or without government customers.
The eligibility questions appear first in the application as a short screening step. Applicants who do not meet them are told so immediately, before investing time in the full form.
What the form asks.
Question wording may be refined before intake opens. Prepare answers offline if you like; the form saves automatically once it is open.
Rapid Small-Molecule Design for CBRN Medical Countermeasures
- 01
What problem does your technology address, and for whom?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 02
Describe your technical approach.
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 03
What evidence do you have that it performs?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 04
Rate your technology readiness level.
Self-rated technology readiness level, 1 to 9. Required.
- 05
Describe your access to wet-lab, test, or demonstration facilities.
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 06
Who are your commercial customers, and what is the market?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 07
What capital have you raised, and what are you seeking?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 08
Who is on the team, and why this team?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 09
Where are you willing to team or partner?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 10
Which target, or class of targets, will you demonstrate against, and how will you show predictive performance?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
Low-SWaP Distributed Sensing with On-Device Edge AI
- 01
What problem does your technology address, and for whom?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 02
Describe your technical approach.
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 03
What evidence do you have that it performs?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 04
Rate your technology readiness level.
Self-rated technology readiness level, 1 to 9. Required.
- 05
Describe your access to wet-lab, test, or demonstration facilities.
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 06
Who are your commercial customers, and what is the market?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 07
What capital have you raised, and what are you seeking?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 08
Who is on the team, and why this team?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 09
Where are you willing to team or partner?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.
- 10
How would you demonstrate detection performance under realistic field conditions?
Up to 1,500 characters. Required.